To Ruby, there is nobody in the entire world more wonderful than her Pa -- her log-riding lumberjack Pa, who calls her "my little jewel" and comes home smelling of spruce and fir. And there's nothing Ruby would rather do than follow in her father's large bootprints, working in the lumber camp.
But a lumber camp is no place for an eight-year-old girl. She belongs in school, learning how to read and write. It is there that she discovers another passion-for the world that opens up to her in books.
Then, when circumstances suddenly change, Ruby fears she has lost the two things she loves most. Through her struggle, she discovers in herself the courage, the kindness, and the talent she so admires in her father.