The Moody family moves from New Hampshire to a Colorado ranch. Experience the pleasures and perils of ranching in 20th Century America, through the eyes of a youngster.

At age 11, Ralph becomes man of the family and an entrepreneur. He continues his horse riding and cattle driving, and the Moody's start a cooking business.

Ralph "Little Britches" Moody must take on responsibilities as the man of the family after his father's death. During the summer of his twelfth year, he works on a cattle ranch in the shadow of Pike's Peak, earning "man's wages" of a dollar a day.

At age 13, Ralph "Little Britches" Moody moves with his mother, Mary Emma, and five siblings to Massachusetts. Money and prospects are few, but not faith and resourcefulness, as they struggle to keep a small business alive.

The fatherless Moody family moves from Colorado to Massachusetts in 1912, as Ralph enters his teen years. He finds city life troubling and so is sent to his grandpa's farm in Maine, where he finds understanding and kindness, especially from the pretty girl next door.

Now 19 years old, skinny and suffering from diabetes, Ralph Moody is ordered by his Boston doctor to seek a more healthful climate out West. Remembering his childhood ranching adventures, Ralph is delighted to strike out for new territory and prospects.

Ralph has just turned 20, and lands in Western Nebraska with only one dime in his pocket. Three months later, Ralph has formed his own harvesting crew, as he leads six men and eight teams of horses on the "dry divide."

In the early 1920s, cowboy and dry-range farmer Ralph Moody finds himself with mountainous debts through the collapse of the livestock market and the dealings of a crooked partner. Ralph never surrenders, but finds a way to turn tragedy into opportunity.