As the wagon train made its descent from the mountains, the warm colors of autumn tried in vain to cheer the weary young Hollisters. Their mother had perished in the desert, and they had heard that their father was dead some years before. With the help of the wagon master, fifteen-year-old Corrie is the only one left to bring her two brothers and two sisters into a raucous California mining camp to find their uncle. "A woman's got to be strong," Corrie's mother had told her. "She's got to be able to make her way alone if she has to." And as her little troop arrives in Miracle Springs to discover that Uncle Nick has skipped town with the sheriff in pursuit, the "land of promise" seems more like a land of fear and danger. Shouts of "gold" and "new strike" fade away as Corrie stands in the middle of a strange town with everyone turning them away. Can they make it on their own?