Cressie is a short novel about a young girl born in Southern Minnesota in the 1850s prior to the great Sioux Uprising of 1862. The story begins when Cressie is twelve years old on a homestead carved out of the Minnesota woods. She flees with her family southward into Iowa when the Sioux Indians go on the warpath. They are uprooted, fleeing for their lives, abandoning the only home she’s ever known.

Her family–her mother, father, and little brother Johnny–seek refuge at her Uncle Andrew’s homestead in northwest Iowa. Circumstances dictate that they cannot remain in Iowa any longer, so they (Cressie’s family and Uncle Andrew’s family) begin a long and arduous trek by covered wagon to the Dakota territory.

During these trying times, Cressie is forced to grow up quickly: from her being a “bound” girl to an unyielding taskmaster to her coming of age on the Dakota Prairies to, finally, the bumpy romance with Jack McGuire, and the many exciting adventures she faces in her journey from the harsh Dakota prairies back to the relative safety of the rolling hills and green fields of Iowa.