A young girl remembers a destitute family she met and keeps hoping to move them from a riverside slum to the country; her persistent sympathy prompts neighbors to consider house-hunting and practical help. The narrative follows everyday domestic episodes—misadventures with pigs, a boy’s visit to a local man, children's squabbles and small triumphs, and preparations for a communal Christmas tree—and shows how kindness, resourcefulness, and community effort reshape the Mulvaneys’ circumstances. Scenes alternate between comic disorder and tender care as the family confronts setbacks and ultimately experiences a Christmas-day reversal that secures a safer, more stable home.