In a Montana ghost town, a family must put aside their big homesteading dreams and attend to their more immediate survival needs. There's a mountain lion stalking them, and they have no livestock, water or food.

A family in Virginia left the corporate world behind, but is now in way over their heads. Their pigs are running wild, predators stalk their livestock, and a giant oak tree threatens to crush their cabin.

The Deeters are dog-mushers with a homestead on the edge of disaster. Bears dine on the dog food and the forest around them is a deadly tinder box. The Raneys must push them to make drastic changes, but discover the Deeters don’t trust outsiders.

Lack of water is just one problem plaguing a family spread in the Nevada desert. Sandstorms and searing heat compounded by financial troubles have them scratching out a meager existence while sharing their space with rattlesnakes.

During the biggest snowstorm of the century, a Pennsylvania family faces a food shortage with no hunting skills and a cabin on the brink of collapse. The Raneys must come to their aid to save their failing forest homestead.

A couple's dream of a pueblo in the Colorado wilderness has turned into a nightmare, as he faces a long daily mountain commute, and she is afraid to leave the house after too many close encounters with bears and mountain lions.