The valley is California's San Joaquin and the boy who works on a pipeline construction job for the summer there is Lex, whose poor school grades and an inability to express himself clearly have made him feel a failure in the eyes of his brilliant engineer father. The summer, however, sees the job do its work for Lex as well as Lex for the job. Lex lives with the Lombardi family and through hard work and a new understanding of people, gains the self confidence necessary to realize his own capabilities and go on to college. Steady and inevitable as the end of the pipeline itself.