At the end of the nineteenth century, nine-year-old Almanzo lives with his family on a big farm in New York State where he raises his own two calves, helps cut ice and shear sheep, and longs for the day he can have his own colt.

Young Almanzo Wilder and his family attend a county fair in upstate New York.

As he grows up on his family's farm in New York, Almanzo Wilder dreams of having a colt of his own.