A young man goes to work in a logging camp to fulfill a boyhood ambition and a jealous loggers rigs things to make him appear to be an incompetent bungler. But he proves himself successfully conveying an injured workman to the hospital in a careening truck, whose brakes have been tampered with, down a mountainside.

Hard-nosed Jefferson Russett runs a logging company; his brother, Steve, is the prodigal son. Steve becomes stranded on the competition's property and slowly learns the business and of his brother's dirty tricks.

During Japan's invasion of China in World War II, two disgraced Japanese soldiers are given a second chance. Facing execution for various infractions, the two men are offered a reprieve if they take a special assignment. Since they can speak Chinese and know the territory, the men are assigned to the task of running a Chinese labor camp the Japanese operate in occupied territory. After the men take over, they work the prisoner's so hard the labor force rises up in revolt of their treatment.