Keeping her promise to her dying father, young Fortune Plunkett is leading his acting troupe west. But fulfilling his dream of establishing a successful theater in San Francisco is an immense challenge for someone who is only 16.

 

Since Plunkett’s Players have joined a wagon train, they have had one adventure after another. Fortune has almost died in a fire, drowned in a flood, and slid over the edge of a cliff with their wagon. Despite the danger, she has managed to find romance with a stranger whose real identity will surprise everyone in the troupe.

 

Set in the excitement of the gold rush era, this historical adventure is a creative take on early western expansion.

 

 “The adventures of the traveling actors in a Conestoga wagon on the Oregon Trail … are robust and fun … preteens will gobble up the story, absorbing some information on the way.”—Booklist