Emmie knew there must be something better than her slatternly mother, who disliked all her children, but hated Emmie most because she was different; Ted Gibson, her mother's lecherous star-boarder, who was tired of her mother's favors and wanted to sample the daughters; Saul Fincham, the miserly farmer who overworked and underpaid her, until she found a way to make him pay off. Here is a poignant story of a girl's gallant fight to escape from her sordid surroundings, and of the strange man who opened the doors to a "better world."