Orphaned as a child in New York City in the middle of the 19th century, Gerta Scholler learns from a Catholic nun about always being true to herself. After traveling on a train to Kansas where an adoptive family awaits her—one of thousands of parent-less children dispatched to the interior of the country on so-called orphan trains—Gerta begins an "almost perfect" life as a much-loved member of a homesteading family. But a raid by a few renegade Indians shatters the new life and Gerta learns anew what it means to be a survivor. Always wanting "to know stuff" and ever hopeful, Gerta draws upon lessons learned to sustain her in her wandering across plains and, ultimately, in a life-or-death battle with a snarling predator.