In 1860, having traveled with his young sister from New York to a foster home on a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri, ten-year-old Danny plots to get his newly-widowed foster father to send for and marry his mother.

In 1860, when their widowed mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent on the orphan train by the Children's Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri.

When the police discover that a man who has been shot has been keeping a file of her entire life, sixteen-year-old Kristi, an aspiring artist, suspects a connection with the possible theft of a painting from a museum.