When Michael’s parents are killed in a car crash, he and his younger brother are split up and Michael is sent to live in a city far from his out-port home. Stubborn and hot-tempered, Michael tries to adjust in spite of trouble at school and the dictates of his authoritarian uncle Ted. Michael decides to run away, and his timid cousin Curtis begs to join him. Together, the boys disappear into the wilds of an isolated national park.