Having been abandoned as a newborn and found and raised by Pastor Ezekiel Freeman in the small California town of Haven, Abra Matthews feels like she doesn't belong and at the age of seventeen runs off to Hollywood, becoming starlet Lena Scott.
In a mining town in New Mexico Territory, three children left to their own devices by negligent parents meet regularly to try to school themselves, until they meet Whitey Grey, who attempts to win them over for his own purposes.