Tracy Powell, an Indiana farmer, gets the gold fever and heads for Stockton, California in 1849. There, he abandons his first partner, Bert Killian, and teams up with Sam Wilkins, a claim jumper employed by Willis Haver. Six years later, Powell returns to Indiana and his sweetheart, Julie. They marry and he tries farming again but, on the night their son is born, he takes off again searching for gold. This time he heads for the hills with an inveterate prospector, Jimmo McCann. A decade later, the two are still hunting for their big strike when McCann is killed in an accident. Powell returns home with news of a big strike but the deserted Julie will have nothing to do with him. His friend Killian will not believe him but Haver, now a banker gives him a small loan and then beats him out of his claim. Many years pass before he comes home, now sixty-years-old, and this time, his wife and son open their home to him. But he vows to go prospecting come next spring.
David Wayne
as Tracy Powell
Keenan Wynn
as Sam Wilkins
James Barton
as Jimmo McCann
Marcia Henderson
as Julie
Jim Backus
as Willis Haver
Denver Pyle
as Bert Killian / Narrator
Myrna Dell
as Aggie
Lewis L. Russell
as Baxter
Frank Fenton
as Harold
Fuzzy Knight
as Pitch Man
Jim Hayward
as Counter Man
Christopher Olsen
as Billy as a Boy
