In 1860, having traveled with his young sister from New York to a foster home on a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri, ten-year-old Danny plots to get his newly-widowed foster father to send for and marry his mother.

When their widowed mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent on the orphan train by the Children's Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri in 1860.

Follows the mischievous Tom Sawyer as he scams his friends, cleverly manipulates his overbearing Aunt Polly, witnesses a murder, fakes his own death, and falls in love with a girl named Becky.