Betsy Miller's family is moving from Boston to Cincinnati, and that means a long river journey, 19th century style.

In 1775, in Boston, Massachusetts, as the British siege brings increasing hardships and growing resentment to the community, eleven-year-old Kate decides to go against her Loyalist parents and help her cousin spy for the Patriots.

In 1939, in Seattle, Washington, as the Japanese invasion of China increases general hostility towards Japanese Americans, nine-year-old Mandy finds the adjustment to her new school as well as the prejudice against her Asian friends extremely difficult to bear.

In their hometown of Minneapolis, streetcar workers have started a union and this new labor movement has divided Rachel's family.

Carrie tries to protect her Jewish friend from intolerant people. For the Minneapolis ten-year-old, friendship with a Jewish immigrant is perfectly normal. So why are many of her other friends uptight about that? Sadly, bigotry is a powerful force in society-so much so, that the white-robed members of the Ku Klux Klan plot violence against her new friend. Will Carrie be able to protect her friend from both the verbal attacks of other girls and the...

In 1944, ten-year-old Jennie Fleming is doing what she can to help win the war -- she's hoeing weeds in her "Victory Garden" on the "home front."

As World War II draws to a close, Laura comes to admire her Japanese American neighbor whose father is fighting for the U.S. Army in Europe, but will she be strong enough to defend her new friend from the persecution of schoolmates?

Ten-year-old Mexican American Rosa Sanchez wants an education more than anything, but when her teachers leave Texas in search of a better life, how will her dream come true?