In 1923, twelve-year-old Hank and his older brother Peter travel on the Orphan Train from New York to Nebraska where they find a miserable existence living on a farm with a disagreeable and abusive couple whose only use for the brothers is as unpaid help.
Hank, having come west on an orphan train to live with a disagreeable couple on a farm in Nebraska, tries to endure his miserable existence and thinks about running away, as his older brother did.
