Ruthie is a nine-year-old girl who is living in a world that's similar to 1930s Depression era rural Kansas. Her family is destitute, and only she and her younger brother are allowed to eat nutritious meals. Her two older sisters are all in their teens, and they resent the fact that they have to work long hours as housemaids in order to send money to their dying father, Ruthie, and their little brother.

 

Ruthie is walking along a dry dirt road when a guardian angel blocks her path and gives her an almost dead plant in a cracked pot. She orders Ruthie to take the plant home and to water it with sugar water once a day. Ruthie begins her work.

 

Her two sisters laugh at her and they grow frustrated since they think that she is wasting good sugar on a dead plant. Things worsen when Ruthie tells them about the guardian angel.

 

One sister slams the pot onto their shanty's dirt floor. The pot shatters, and the two sisters are frozen in place like statues. What will Ruthie do to thaw them back to life? Will the plant be saved?