Tommy McGrath and "Fats" Moody, two young boys on the verge of becoming hardened criminals, attempt to hold up a warehouse but escape before the police arrive. Hopping a freight-car, they go west where they are befriended by a pair of retired actors. When they leave , they decide to join the CCC(Civilian Conservation Corps)as it seems a good place to hide from the law. Both soon have the toughness knocked out of them and are on the straight-and-narrow. Tommy meets and falls in love with Joan Martin, the sheriff's daughter, but just after his appointment to the Forestry Service he is accused of murdering one of the camp leaders he had fought with on several occasions, and he hides in a nearby cabin. Tommy catches a lunatic setting fire to the woods, attempts to stop him and is shot through the shoulder. When he comes to, the forest is ablaze and he struggles back to the cabin to release the deputy he had escaped from.