'If the hunger doesn't kill you then the plague will. Leave now and go to America - it's your only chance.'
Sean and Annie have fled the potato famine in Ireland for America, leaving their dying mother behind. They are the only O'Brien children to have survived their family's suffering.
The worst is not over as they embark on a hard and dangerous journey all the way from Cork to California. One thing gives them the courage to go on: the hope that they might at last be reunited with their father.
