Mario Spinelli is a Catholic, Italian-American young man from New York with a bright future in the paper industry. When the small paper mill where he is carving out his career is bought and then closed by industry giant Global Printing and Writing, he is forced to transfer to a huge, state-of-the-art mill in rural Arkansas to keep his career on track. His New York attitude quickly brings him trouble with the locals. He can't wait to escape his misery and return north.until he meets and falls in love with a beautiful hometown engineer, Alisha Ann Reynolds. Mario joins in the antics of his coworkers, for whom bass fishing is the supreme entertainment. Through personal heroics and tragedy, he must rely on his steadfast faith in his struggle to win Alisha Ann's heart and acceptance with his peers.