When drought and fire afflict Rocky Ridge Farm, eleven-year-old Rose Wilder and her parents temporarily move to Mansfield and try to adjust to a new life in town.

A little pioneer girl and her family spend the winter in their log cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.

Fifteen-year-old Laura learns that living away from home and teaching school can be a bit frightening when most of the students are taller than she is, but every week Almanzo Wilder arrives to take her to her family for the weekend.

Laura and Almanzo Wilder have just been married. Their life on a small prairie homestead begins with high hopes. But each year seems to bring unexpected disasters--storms, sickness, fire, and unpaid debts. These first four years call for courage, strength, and a great deal of determination. Always, though, there is love, especially for the newest member of the family--baby Rose.

When Rose moves to Louisiana to live with her aunt Eliza Jane to finish high school, she is exposed to new cultures, politics, and ways of life.

Young Caroline Quiner, who would grow up to be Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother, and her family move to a new farm near Concord, Wisconsin.

Laura helps out on the family farms in the Big Woods and on the prairie.

Laura and her family move to Minnesota where they live in a dugout until a new house is built and face misfortunes caused by flood, blizzard, and grasshoppers.