Billy Barber, Sarlene Thorus, and Carl Woodson are friends who just finished Grade 5 at Retti Elementary School in Reindeer Falls. They have just found out that, by coincidence, they would be all on vacation at a popular tourist destination called Milky Lake together, the first time ever that they would all be on vacation together. When they get to Milky Lake, with Billy's younger brother Kyle and Carl's younger sister Karlee, they decide to go north away from the main trails in the woods to find a place to play. They come across an intersection with a game trail, and decide to start playing there. As they are playing, they drift away east from this intersection towards a clearing, where they find an abandoned cabin. They explore the cabin, and find a map and a diary inside the drawers of the desk. After examining the diary, they return to their motel to study the map, and decide to look for the treasure. However, their parents and Sarlene's older brothers Luke and Petros decide to join them on their treasure hunt because the parents feel that the children are too young to go alone to explore an area that had been undisturbed by humans for 100 years. As they are on their treasure hunt, they face some challenges along the way to the treasure.