Fourteen year old Cliff finds himself standing in a bread line with his brother Hank, after taking up life as a hobo, riding the rails in search of work during The Great Depression. Proud and boastful, Cliff introduces himself to eleven year old Louise and suddenly feels sorry for her. As a way of introduction, Cliff gives her his last piece of change, a worthless wooden nickel. Cliff is captivated by the prettiest girl hes ever laid eyes on and though Hank wants to continue to ride the rails all the way to Washington or Oregon, Cliff insists on waiting a few days and looking for work in town. He talks Hank into attending school with him the next day, in hopes of seeing Louise again. Wanting to help the boys, Louise hides them in her fathers old barn. She sneaks blankets and food to them until her father catches them. Her kind hearted father, Bill, offers Cliff a job as a reporter, working at his newspaper and Hank a job with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Louises sister, Lily becomes a nurse and flies to Berlin to tend to Americas soldiers wounded in battle. Seven years have passed since Cliffs disappearance when Louise receives a call from Lily in Berlin, saying shes been tending a patient just rescued from a liberated concentration camp whose only possession is a wooden nickel. Louise and Cliff are reunited and remain married for forty-five years when Cliff dies of a heart attack, leaving Louise with only her memories and the wooden nickel until a tornado sweeps through town and levels everything. The wooden nickel is now lost, but five years later, Louise and Cliffs geologist daughter, Dianna, presents her mother with an anniversary gift. Its the wooden nickel, still wrapped in blue satin, lying in the music box that Cliff had sent her from Germany.