A child's two grandfathers relate their boyhood experiences of the "terrible blizzard of 1888," during which each was stuck for three days doing what he disliked the most.
In 1881, when their apple tree is felled by a storm just before Christmas, a young farm girl and her family discover that the tree was important to each of them for different reasons.
Although a blizzard prevents his cousins from visiting for his birthday, a disappointed Billy ends up having a very special day when his teacher and classmates must stay overnight at his family's house to wait out the snowstorm.
After an October blizzard, Laura's family moves from the claim shanty into town for the winter, a winter that an Indian has predicted will be seven months of bad weather.
