After their mother's recent death, twelve-year-old Liberty and her eight-year-old sister, Billie, are sent to live with their father, whom they haven't seen since they were very young. Things are fine at first, but then the pressure becomes too much for him, and he abandons them at the gas station. Liberty takes matters into her own hands. An ardent animal lover, she uses survival strategies that she's learned from observing animals to get herself and Billie home.