Thirteen-year-old Billy lives with a gang on the streets of New York City stealing for clothes and food. When he is caught, he is given a chance to live with a nice farm family in Nebraska. Is he such a bad kid that he cannot change?.
After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he cannot work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father bring home an orphan boy to help with chores, Nate feels even worse.