When New York insurance accountant Johnny Baxter learns that his long-lost uncle, Jacob Barnesworth, has left him the Grand Imperial Hotel in Silver Hill, Colorado, he happily quits his boring job and announces to his skeptical wife Sue that they are moving. Arriving in the small town of Silver Hill in the dead of winter, Johnny, Sue, their daughter Chris and son Richard are chagrined to find that the supposedly profitable hotel is actually a boarded-up mess that lacks heat and water. That night, Johnny reveals to Sue that he had to spend their $1,700 in savings on attorney fees and other expenses, thus making their financial situation even more dire. When they hear noises downstairs, Johnny and their cowardly St. Bernard, Stoutheart, investigate and encounter Jesse McCord, an old miner and friend of Jacob, who offers to become their bartender and bellhop in exchange for room and board. The next day, hoping to obtain money for improvements to make the hotel operational, Johnny decides that he needs a bank loan. Despite Jesse’s warnings that the only banker in town, Martin Ridgeway, is mean and dishonest, Johnny goes to him. Ridgeway turns Johnny down but offers to buy the hotel, saying that it has always been his dream to turn the hotel into a home for wayward boys. Later that day, Wally Perkins, who works at the town garage and has a crush on Chris, rides over to the hotel on his snowmobile and cheerfully offers to help. Looking at the snow-covered peaks near the hotel, Johnny suddenly realizes that the hills would make excellent ski slopes if he could obtain the money to develop the property as a resort. Undaunted by Ridgeway’s rejection, Johnny tries calling bankers in neighboring towns and is able to make an appointment with Wainwright, an avid skier who sees merit in Johnny’s plan. Assuring Wainwright that he is an expert skier, Johnny agrees to meet him at a nearby ski resort. Assuming that Johnny has been truthful about his skiing abilities, Wainwright takes him on the chair lift and shows him the slope, which locals call “Nightmare Alley.” Terrified, Johnny feigns an old football injury and tells Wainwright to ski ahead. As he is trying to board the descending chair lift, Johnny loses his balance and crashes into some bystanders, causing him to careen down the slope, injuring himself and several unfortunate skiers. Later, while Johnny is nursing a concussion, Ridgeway arrives at the hotel and tells him that he has reconsidered his earlier request and will loan him $3,000. Despite Sue’s misgivings, Johnny quickly signs the papers. After Ridgeway leaves, Wally agrees to help by becoming the ski instructor and handyman for $100 a month, plus room and board. During the next few weeks, Johnny and the others make great progress with the repairs and cleanup, although a disaster with the hotel boiler meant that there was not enough money left over to buy an engine for a skiers’ rope tow. Jesse suggests using an abandoned steam engine to power the tow. The engine would have to be towed up the hill, though, and they soon find that, under pressure from Ridgeway, who controls all of the finances in town, garage owner Double L. Dingman and other locals with heavy equipment will not allow Johnny to use it. When things seem the bleakest, Richie suggests using the steam engine’s own power to transport it, and they soon have an operational rope tow in place. On opening day, there are no guests until Wally, who has been using dynamite to blast out stumps, causes a small avalanche to cover the tracks in front of an approaching ski train. When Wally sees the stranded passengers, he quickly summons Johnny and Jesse, who transport them by sled to the lodge. With the hotel full, Sue and Johnny happily anticipate a growing venture. The next morning, as Wally, who has never before taught anyone to ski, tries to teach some of the guests, he accidentally slides down a hill, breaks his arm and is trapped hanging from a tree. Jesse uses ropes from the steam engine to pull him up, but, in the process, the small woodpile used to fuel the engine catches fire. Unknown to Jesse, the fire grows, spreading to the ropes, which then break, sending the engine crashing down the hill and through the first floor of the hotel. Later, when Johnny asks Ridgeway for an extension of his first month’s payment on the loan, Ridgeway refuses, instead offering to take over the hotel and give Johnny $200 cash. Faced with losing everything, Johnny feels that he has no other choice than to enter Silver Hill’s annual cross country snowmobile race, which has been won for the past several years by Ridgeway. Figuring that even the third place $1,000 prize will be enough to see them through the first payment, Johnny determines to enter Wally’s ramshackle snowmobile, “The Mighty Mongrel,” into the race and drive it himself. The long-suffering Sue then tells Johnny that she will not stay in Silver Hill to see him killed. On the day of the race, after Sue, Chris and Richie have left town, Johnny enters the race with Jesse as his reluctant partner, pitted against the race favorites, Ridgeway and Double L. Despite setbacks and near-catastrophic crashes, Johnny and Jesse manage to keep up with Ridgeway’s vehicle throughout the race. As the teams approach the home stretch, Johnny and Jesse race ahead until they crash into a snow bank a few yards from the finish line. They try to get their crippled snowmobile back on track but it stops a few inches before the line, enabling Ridgeway to win the race. Late that night, Johnny finally crosses the finish line assisted by a horse. Although crestfallen, Johnny is happy to see that Sue has returned, warmly embracing him and saying that she plans to stay. The next day, as Johnny is about to sign the papers to forfeit the hotel, Ridgeway’s secretary, Miss Wigginton, blurts out that the only reason Ridgeway wants the property is because of its 3,000 acres of valuable timber land. She then reveals that, decades before, the land had been deeded to the Ute Indians by the kindly Jacob, but because the Utes had all died or moved elsewhere, the land reverted back to him. Overjoyed to learn that they can stay because the valuable land will provide an income, the Baxters go out onto the ski slopes so that Sue can finally learn to ski.