Tells the story of Clem Marlow, fourteen years old, just about penniless, without family except for his mother, who lies ill in a hospital seven hundred miles away and for whom he is agonizingly lonely. So lonely that Clem sets out in a small cart drawn by his pet burro, Pedro and his dog, Duke, to be reunited with his mother. This is the tale of his incredible journey from Oklahoma to New Mexico, the events that occur as he presses on, and the extraordinary assortment of people he meets en route.