Jim Rayborn has for years been doing most of the work of his grim father Clay's farm, yet couldn't convince the patriarch to switch from cattle to sheep because the warmer climate favors shorter grasses. For Jim's mother's funeral, his sister Lisa returns from New York. Jim expects she'll leave again soon, but learns later her alleged fashion career was a lie. She forces Clay to allow adopting a sheepdog, which Jim considered too expensive: young Lucky, who was dumped at the pond which nature-devoted ma used to help run with veterinarian Don, who soon becomes more then friends with her. Lucky proves talented as the siblings train her, until storm causing a forest fire makes her a canine but temporarily disabled hero. Truth time approaches for everyone.