When Jesse's parents decide to abandon their Illinois farm and return to their first home in Kentucky, Jesse is happy at the thought of seeing her grandmother again.Her older brother, Moses, would rather travel west, where the prairie goes on forever. He hates the idea of returning to a slave state and joins the family only reluctantly. But just a few days into their journey, Mama and Papa both die of the milk sickness.

Now Jesse, Moses, and the two younger children are orphans, and must make the long journey on their own, in a pioneer world where orphan children can be bound out and forced to live as indentured servants until they are grown. Armed with a letter of protection from their father and the heart and will to survive, the children brave the wilderness. They don't know whom to trust. Will they ever find their way to Kentucky? And when they do, will they have a home?