Twelve-year-old Allister McRuer can't wait to attend the brand new, one-room schoolhouse that he, his father, and brothers helped to build on a corner of his family's pioneer homestead in southwestern Manitoba.

There was no school within walking distance when Allister and his family first arrived in May of 1892. More than a year has passed, and Allister worries that he has forgotten everything he learned at his school in eastern Canada. Will he and his twin brother, Jim, ever be able to catch up?

Allister's excitement quickly turns to frustration. His new teacher doesn't seem to know how to handle sixteen children in Grades 1 through 8. What chaos! And his father continually pulls Allister and Jim out of school to help with the harvest or to build on their older brothers' homestead claims. How are he and Jim going to pass any grade?