The Florida Everglades is often portrayed today as a recreational wilderness traversed by speeding airboats filed with intrepid tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of an alligator.
Not so in 1898 when the alligator and panther ruled uncontested. Few ventured into this forbidding and uncharted land of endless sawgrass domains, cypress and oak hammocks, and dark uncharted waterways when Dan sails to the remote coastal town of Buttonwood, during the early stages of a growing drought. Prevented from marrying Martha for lack of appreciable means, and required to teach school for one year, Dan learns of the coming possibility and potential of gator holes, remote lakes deep within the Everglades where alligators gather in great numbers to escape a drought, thereby presenting a rare financial opportunity for those willing to hazard a harvest of their hides. With friends Jim and Logan, Dan devises a stratagem to risk a clandestine run, unaware the nefarious Aaron Travers discovers their intentions and follows close behind, fully expecting to seize everything for himself.