When zinc was discovered in Arkansas along the banks of Rush Creek, the town of Rush sprang up overnight. By 1900, two thousand people dreamed of a better life while coaxing rich, zinc ore from the Ozark mountains. One such dreamer was Mike Gilbert. As a young man of twenty, Mike travels to Rush only two counties away from the family farm in Kingston. Upon arriving, he soon learns that dreams and reality are opposite sides of a coin. While he struggles to build a life, he gives his heart to a girl whose father stands between them. He battles a jealous bootlegger and loses a friend to the swollen waters of the Buffalo River. When store owner, Rosie Kirk, gives Mike a share in the mine she owns, Mike must juggle emotions of anger and heartbreak while living the back-breaking life as a miner. Through failures and success, Mike Gilbert becomes a man along the banks of Rush Creek.