Ten-year-old Fred (short for Frederika) narrates the story of school and village life among the Athapascans in Alaska during 1948 when Miss Agnes arrived as the new teacher.

In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, thirteen-year-old Abby Joyner continues to live with her grandparents on the isolated Virginia plantation where she was raised, although they are now free. Abby's main concern is discovering what became of her mother, who disappeared when Abby was a baby.