Desperate to escape her squalid life on the streets of New York City,
sixteen year-old Fiona Finn seeks help at the magnificent Church of the
Ascension where Charles Loring Brace, a social reformer horrified by the
plight of New York City's street children, arranges for her to go west
aboard an Orphan Train. Fiona's homeless, alcoholic father has other
plans, however. He wants Fiona to "work" the streets to support his
drinking and pursues her across the midwest until she is forced to
abandon the train in Houston to avoid a sheriff bent on returning her to
her father. Alone in the dark on the Texas prairie, Fiona's terrifying
experience with a circus elephant, Bolivar, sets the stage for a future
she could never have imagined.