In 1837 ten-year-old Libby and her parents journey by covered wagon to the Michigan frontier, where they make themselves a new home near friendly Indians and other pioneers.
Elviry decides that her family really needs to celebrate Christmas in their new home in the Michigan woods even though it will not be the same since her mother died.
14-year-old Shem spends 6 months in the wilderness alone with a dying Indian woman, who helps him, not only to survive, but to mature where he can return to his family & the difficulties of life in a frontier village.
In 1840, Libby, living with her family on the Michigan frontier, finds herself inadvertently caught up in the forced evacuation of a group of Potawatomi Indians from their tribal lands.