Eleven-year-old Bucky McGuire climbs aboard his family's covered wagon and heads west in 1877. Wrapped in buffalo robes, young Bucky watches the new world unfurl before him and dreams of the possibilities of frontier life in post-Civil War Illinois.

Bucky soon learns he will need every ounce of his considerable grit and good-heartedness to assist the McGuire clan in taming their new surroundings. There are crops to protect from a biblical plague of locusts, a cowboy posse to join when a fierce blizzard threatens a herd of cattle, and wayward children to rescue from an abandoned mine shaft. To say nothing of the risks posed by the smile of a pretty girl at the church social . . .

As his adventures unfold, Bucky will discover that anything is possible with the help of a strong horse, a loyal dog, and the love of a good family.