Moving from L.A. to the Pacific Northwest town, is always difficult but especially for the one doing the moving. After her dad's death, pre-teen Beth Easton and her mother, Kate, move to the house left to the family by a deceased aunt. Slowly, she makes friends, despite the lack of a nearby mall or anything else to do. Soon she meets up a girl, tomboy-ish Jody Salerno, an outcast with an alcoholic mother, shunned by her peers as a "bad kid."

As the film progresses, we see Jody as the apparent victim of a bad relationship between her own widowed mother and Ray, a man who, like everybody else, grew up in the town. Somehow, Beth sees that Jody isn't all that bad; "she just needs a friend.". The two form a bond, and soon Jody tells Beth about the legend of Molly Morgan, who, many years ago, supposedly found gold inside nearby Bear Mountain.

Filled with dreams of finding the lost treasure, the buddies set out on a peril-filled adventure into the caves and catacombs of Bear Mountain. The movie continues digging deeper into Jody's life through Beth's eyes. Although the legend of Bear Mountain is the prime motivator of several incidents, it's Jody's relationship to Ray, her mother, Beth, and the rest of the townspeople that provides the focus of the movie.

DTS Sound. Color by DeLuxe.
Mark Weiner was the bear trainer.