Joan Skaggs is a bright fourteen-year-old who lives with her father and brothers on Steeple Farm.  Farm life is hard in 1911.  When Joan’s mother dies, her father will not allow her to return to school.  Her mother always hoped that Joan would use her education to get off the farm, but it looks like Joan is destined to keep her father’s house while her brothers and father toil in the fields. Miss Chandler, Joan’s teacher, visits Joan on the farm one day and presents her with  a beautiful journal encouraging Joan to practice her gift of writing. Her father, agitated by Miss Chandler’s interference, chases Miss Chandler off the farm mortifying and embarrassing Joan. How could her father be so unrefined? Joan is not one to be kept down on the farm.  Daily she plans her escape to a better life, maybe not the one her mother had dreamed for her, but definitely an escape from the harsh life at Steeple Farm. Joan makes her escape to the big city, and an adventure ensues which Joan shares with readers in her journal.