Central Kansas Library System

Deeply unhappy about the separation of her family because of poverty, twelve-year-old Megan gradually finds contentment and purpose in her new home on the Kansas prairie with a kind and loving adopted family.

May is helping out on a neighbor's homestead - just until Christmas, her pa promises. But when a terrible turn of events leaves her all alone, she must try to find food and fuel - and courage - to make it through the approaching winter.

When spring arrives, Albert, Nessa's old friend from the orphanage, joins her in Kansas, but she discovers that their relationship has changed.