The men took one step toward her. As Elsie took another step back, her foot caught on a chunk of stone. She felt her ankle twist as she stumbled to catch her balance. The men stepped forward again. Bigger steps this time. Elsie could smell smoke and sweat and a stink like rotten potatoes. In a sliver of light between the hoboes, she saw Dog Bob being hauled away by the man. But she felt frozen in place, with a chill creeping down her legs and up into her collar. The Reverend had been right. She shouldn't have come. Abandoned by her father during the Depression, eleven-year-old Elsie lives in the garage behind her old house with her mother, her grandmother and her out-of-work uncle. Elsie's friend Ernest accompanies her as she searches for her father in the city, encountering unfriendly hoboes, food lines and shantytowns. After both her uncle and her mother disappear as well, Elsie and Ernest spend their time trying to get the "scoop" on a story about a local dance marathon, where Elsie finds joy, even as she witnesses despair.