The Hartleys live on Texas land an ancestor received in a grant from the king of Spain, and they value their trees only slightly less than the members of their family. Beau Hartley continually has run-ins with Gaitor Morfew, youngest of a clan of troublemakers, who accuses Beau's brother Andy of being the timber pirate troubling the area. Beau joins Andy in searching for an illegal logging crew, but when Andy disappears in the same swamp that claimed the life of their Dad, Beau is left with a series of unanswered questions. Who's pirating the timber on their land, and how can he clear Andy's name of the crime? It takes a devastating forest fire to resolve his dilemma.