The story begins before the turn of the century. The Gillis's live a very easy and tranquil life, in spite of active and noisy boys. But soon the tranquillity is shattered. First Albert then John die within months of each other. Then six years later Lydia and her husband Joseph die within months of each other. Lydia and Joseph leave six children and rather than have them stay with their grandmother Gillis, Joseph sends them to his sister in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada, just before he dies. Before long the uncle decides he wants their inheritance so he moves them to Kit Carson, Colorado. After all the hardships they have already encountered he puts them up in a tent on the prairie. Soon the authorities are notified that the children are not being cared for and all but the oldest daughter are sent to The Home for Neglected and Abandoned Children in Denver. Janet the oldest stays with a family in Kit Carson and works for her keep while going to school. The family is good to her and they treat her like one of their own. The oldest boy Charles falls ill while in the Home and dies at the age of fourteen. John and Joseph are sent to work in the coal mines in Durango and Pueblo. Ruth the baby is adopted by a family that moves to Illinois. That leaves Rose who is fifteen to be farmed out to wealthy families in Denver to work for her keep. When she is eighteen she is emancipated from the Home and can go where she pleases. The story follows the paths of each living orphan. Each one has their own memories of the way life was on their journey and how the hardships formed their character. Rose was the only one that seemed to deny the past and so she would bury herself in romance novels and lived her life as a fantasy. She would never talk about her childhood or the years after her parents died until she was emancipated from the Home and her return to Kit Carson. Many times her comment was that she didn't deserve anything better in life.