Disasters can't spoil a long-awaited dream of boyhood adventure for life-long buddies, Ladd and Tone, and their newfound friend, young Willie. They discover that their summer of leisure and fun building and living in a cabin on a remote Wisconsin River island is occasionally interrupted by dangers they didn't anticipate. An unexpected opportunity offers them a spectacular grand finale to their summer vacation--an adventure of a lifetime--to retrace the voyage of the first great explorers who conquered the unknown Wisconsin River. Their 200-mile journey by boat lures them into a life-threatening dilemma and they are forced to conquer the river in their own way.