A childhood of Martha Jane Canary

1863, we are in the midst of a convoy heading West. 11-year-old Martha Jane, oldest child in the Canary family, is working around the wagon, on its way to a better life in the green hills of Oregon.
Since her mother died, Martha has had to take care of her brother and sister. But when she has to drive the wagon, or take the cattle to the river, what can she do with her dress? The young girl slips into trousers and boots, at the risk of shocking the rest of the community; especially since Martha has an unfortunate tendency to tell lies - about her family, their fortune and her identity. Her vivid imagination projects the girl who was later to become Calamity Jane into an adventure fraught with danger.