A young boy learns hard lessons about life through his pet deer. Parts of this are very happy and the family's life is occasionally idyllic, but mostly the film is about the harshness of living off the land. The father (Gregory Peck) is the typical nice dad who teaches his son the important things in life. The mother (Jane Wyman) is portrayed as being very strict and humourless, which I thought was both interesting and unfortunate. I would have liked to see her character developed a bit more: the film barely scratches the surface and there seemed to be a lot going on there.