Natty Gann (played by Meredith Salenger) is a twelve-year-old girl from the Depression era, whose single-parent father left her behind in Chicago while he went to Washington State to look for work in the timber industry. Natty runs away from her guardian and follows her father. She befriends and is befriended by a wolf that has been abused in dog fights, hops a freight train west, and is presumed dead when her wallet is found after the train crashes. Her father becomes bitter and endangers himself in his new job. Meanwhile, Natty experiences a series of adventures and misadventures in various farmhouses, police stations, hobo camps, reform schools, and boxcars.