A listless young man, upon learning he is ill, leaves his job, girlfriend and city behind, and ventures alone into the British Columbia interior, bringing his fears and anxieties with him.
Natty Gann (played by Meredith Salenger) is a twelve year old Depression era girl whose single-parent father leaves her behind in Chicago while he goes to Washington State to look for work in the timber industry. Natty runs away from the guardian she was left with to follow Dad. 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. Dad gets bitter and endangers himself in his new job. Meanwhile Natty has a series of adventures and mis- adventures in various farmhouses, police stations, hobo camps, reform schools, and boxcars.
Stage stars Tom and Ellen Bowen embark to open their show in England. Innocent-seeming Ellen is a female Don Juan and doesn't take dancing as seriously as brother Tom; on shipboard she meets her match, Lord John Brindale. Arrived in London, confirmed bachelor Tom auditions and is taken with cool dancer Anne Ashmond. Will romance break up the act