The narrative opens deep in the wet Canadian timberlands, where idealistic forester Dan Todd finds himself out of a job after bucking the powerful and corrupt logging baron Sim Ludwig. While riding through the dark forest, Dan discovers a lost golden slipper and soon after rescues a freezing, desperate young woman named Dorothy Lowe. Dorothy and her brother Bob are the heirs to vast cedar holdings that Ludwig is desperate to control through his henchmen and crooked managers. Shortly after Dan saves her, a murder occurs at Ludwig’s hunting lodge, and John Day Burke, the corrupt guardian of the Lowe siblings, is found shot dead. Dorothy immediately claims she committed the murder to protect her brother, throwing the region into legal turmoil and community suspicion.
Despite their initial hostility, Dorothy employs Dan to manage the struggling Lowe timber operations and prove that the mills can run profitably through honest labor rather than theft. Dan steps into the role, but he faces relentless sabotage from Ludwig’s brutal enforcers, including a vicious attack that leaves him battered and temporarily paralyzed in the wilderness. Throughout the investigation, the tension between the conservative logging faction and Dan's conservationist ideals boils over, with Bob Lowe fiercely opposing Dan while secretly struggling with his own guilt over the murder. The community watches as the local mills fight for survival and compete for lucrative international timber contracts against Ludwig’s monopolistic influence.
As the legal proceedings conclude and public pressure mounts, Dan uncovers the elaborate mechanism Ludwig used to steal millions in cedar by diverting logs through secret water channels into Black Lake. The rivalry culminates in a violent confrontation at the river dam during a massive seasonal flood triggered by a sudden chinook wind. In the ensuing struggle, Ludwig is exposed as Burke’s killer and ultimately defeated in a desperate river chase, leading to his arrest and the complete exposure of his criminal enterprise.
The story resolves as the Lowe mills thrive under honest management, the stolen timber is successfully recovered, and Bob Lowe earns the respect of the workers by shedding his arrogant ways to labor in the camps. Dorothy and Dan realize their mutual devotion through the trials they shared in the wilderness, culminating in a memorable wedding ceremony held on a floating log boom in the bay. The novel closes with the warm chinook wind sweeping across the snow-capped mountains, signaling a fresh beginning for the timber country.
