Traveling in a wagon train with her Aunt Margaret Kemper and the three dreadful cousins, Ellie Martin is to join her father and brother in Salt Lake to go to their new home in California. When the Oregon-bound Kempers abandon her on the trail, Ellie fears they have discovered the secret of her blue quilt. Rescued by Jean Paul, a French-Shoshoni boy with his own secrets, they race westward on two strong Shoshoni horses to reclaim her quilt and find her father. Blackfoot raiders, an angry bear and an orphaned wolf pup are part of the excitement, danger and losses of frontier life that Ellie must face before she can make her way home.