A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the prairie, where they build a house, meet neighboring Indians, sink a well, and fight a prairie fire. A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the prairie, where they build a house, meet neighboring Indians, build a well, and fight a prairie fire.

At the end of the nineteenth century, nine-year-old Almanzo lives with his family on a big farm in New York State where he raises his own two calves, helps cut ice and shear sheep, and longs for the day he can have his own colt.