The boy without a name has been a crop picker as long as he remembers. He figures everyone better look out for himself. Raidy looked out for all strays, including him, but Raidy was killed when her yellow hair was caught in the farm machine. Somehow the exhausted, starving, grieving boy wanders off into the lonely, grazing lands of Montana. There a sheep dog, Jup, finds him for Boss.

This is the beginning of quite a different life. In Boss' Bible he finds a name for himself—David. He tries to stop being a loner, to do the right thing, to belong. He makes mistakes because he does not know dogs—up to now he and dogs were fighting for the same scraps—or sheep. The sheep act silly and helpless and Boss' angry pity will allow no criticism. He makes mistakes and does not always own up to them, or tell her all he suffered, because he is a boy. Boss grows angry. Ben, the son for whom she still mourns, always knew what to do.

On a Christmas that started off better than any the boy had known, she tells him he picked the wrong name, that he'll never be a shepherd. But David has been learning and growing all this time. No longer trying to be like Ben, he uses his own keen wits to follow the horse, find his friend and bring the hurt man to the wagon. Boss becomes ill; he tends her and the sheep. Then the bear that probably killed Ben meets his reckoning—and David is accepted by people, dogs and sheep, no longer a loner.

From the dust jacket