The Turner family moves from the big city (Baltimore, Maryland) to the rural countryside in Tazewell County, Virginia, hoping to start a new life. The move creates problems for everyone, especially 13-year-old Matt (Tom Guiry), who feels lost and alone in his new surroundings, and still has not come to terms with his father's remarriage after his mother's death. But with the help of a stray Collie dog named Lassie that the family takes in, Matt learns to adjust to his surroundings, and his family situation, and the two form an unbreakable bond.