Nine year old Alfred and his family live as sharecroppers in the pine woods of East Texas. They are plagued by poverty, hunger, illness, and land disputes. Should the children work to help buy food for one more day as their father insists? Or should they go to school as their mother wants in order to gain a better future? As circumstances continue to get worse, the family is evicted and moves to a tent in the woods. There an unexpected change awaits...