In the rugged landscape of early frontier Texas, fourteen-year-old Travis is faced with taking over his family's farm and making a painful, important decision.

Laura has her first experiences as a teacher, and is courted by Almanzo Wilder.

The Ingalls family packs up their covered wagon and travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home in Kansas Territory, where wide open land stretches as far as the eye can see. On the prairie, they build a house, meet neighboring Indians, build a well, and fight a prairie fire.