Orphaned at age six and taken in by a heartless couple, nine-year-old Katie Rose spends her days doing chores and dreaming of going west to find her Uncle Jack. Then Mr. Stevens brings home an unbroken Mustang, and Katie's world changes. Katie is drawn to the horse's wildness, and he seems to sense her need for companionship. So when Katie learns that the Stevenses plan to join the expansion West, without her or the Mustang, she makes a desperate...

Katie continues the journey west in the company of a traveling circus troupe.

While her father is away fighting the Normans and other Irish clans, nine-year-old Lara works hard to help harvest food and also cares for the pregnant gray mare that she loves.

In 1773, twelve-year-old Silence works to please her mother through household chores and weekly etiquette lessons in hopes of spending time with her beloved horse, Lily, while the men of Boston, including her Loyalist father and brother, discuss a possible war over taxation without representation.