Nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston arrives from Asheville to teach in the poverty-stricken community of Cutter Gap, where she must learn to live on her own and fit it with the locals. Christy makes friends with Miss Alice at the Mission, the local doctor and the Reverend. Meanwhile, Christy and Dr. MacNeill spend some "quality" time together and the discovery of a secret stash of moonshine beneath the school causes problems for David and Christy.

Rob Allen enters a writing contest and Little Burl is injured when he falls through a crevice in the rocks.

When Opal's baby girl dies because of backwoods superstitions, Christy is appalled. Meanwhile, Tom McHone seeks refuge at the mission after being shot and accused of telling the authorities about the moonshining operation.

Christy's father suffers a stroke, that leads to a visit from her mother, culminating in her being ordered to return home to Asheville to care for her ailing father. Meanwhile, the the Cutter Gap men have a surprise in store for the Reverend.

When David's sister Ida prepares to marry her penpal, Clarence Sweetwater, this propels David to propose Christy. Meanwhile, Christy attempts to help teenager Lundy Taylor reconnect with his father.