When loner Will Hunter hired on to drive a wagon load of people out of San Antonio, he wasn't expecting a dozen orphans, a New York Placing Agent, and the biggest tomboy in town, Amanda Jean Haywood, who knew more about horses than Will had ever dreamed. Forced by the Agent's untimely death to head up the Orphan Train, not only does Will run into the expected late winter blizzards, floods, stampedes, thieves, and Comancheros, but he also, with Amanda's help, has to figure out how to handle the plagues of hornets, buffaloes, and snakes that the dozen children bring upon the wagons. By the end of the arduous trek, Will realizes that a loner is the unhappiest man in the world; that only by taking on the problems of those for whom you love and care, can a man truly be content.