Hildy Corrigan, 12, came home one day to find that her stepmother had taken her brother and 4 sisters and left Hildy alone. Angry and determined, Hildy refuses to stay with her backwoods granny and runs off with her cousin Ruby to find her family. Granny sends an evil mountain hunter on their track, determined to have Hildy to herself, and Hildy despairs of keeping her promise to her siblings to never let them be separated.

Joining her cousin Ruby on a search for Ruby's missing father, leads Hildy to a confrontation with wealthy cattleman, Ozzie Kessick.

Returning to the Ozark Mountains to visit their grandmothers, Hildy and Ruby encounter old mountain hatreds, danger, and forgiveness.

Hildy Corrigan is thrust into unexpected jeopardy and learns a valuable lesson about God when she tries to help her benefactor learn who is stealing gold from his mine in California's historic Mother Lode.

When Hildy Corrigan's unemployed father announces the family is moving away from their friends just before Christmas, 1934, Hildy feels anger and pain; but adventure beckons when she and friends track a stolen horse in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where a dangerous convict and a snowstorm threaten their lives.