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 CityÕs street children, arranges for her to go west aboard an Orphan Train.
FionaÕs homeless, alcoholic father has other plans, however. He wants Fiona to ÒworkÓ 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, FionaÕs terrifying experience with a circus elephant, Bolivar, sets the stage for a future she could never have imagined.