(Back cover) Hildy Corrigan, almost a teenager, returns home to discover that her stepmother has abandoned her and taken her brother and four sisters. Fighting anger, resentment and self-blame, Hildy refuses to stay with her backwoods grandmother and runs away with her cousin Ruby in hopes of finding her family. Tracked by a crude mountain hunter hired to bring them back, Hildy despairs of ever fulfilling her promise to her siblings.