In the rural Oregon logging town of Philomath, every high school graduate has their college tuition paid thanks to the generosity of local lumber baron Rex Clemens. But when a new schools Superintendent arrives from Chicago, the administrators of the scholarship become concerned over the increasingly "liberal" direction of the schools. The conflict between the old-time loggers and the "urban immigrants" escalates dramatically, and the scholarship administrators deliver an ultimatum: either the superintendent leaves, or the scholarship is withdrawn, leaving the town's children without money for college.