When word is received that Parker Reed has been killed in the fighting on Iwo Jima and will not be coming home, his wife Leona and young son Jake are overtaken by rage and grief. The news that might have drawn them together pushes each of them instead into a separate anguish to be borne in silence and alone. Then into their lives a gift comes prancing: a miniature horse, no bigger than a merry-go-round figure, but dappled, sleek and handsome. Welcomed by only one of them, this little animal threatens to deepen the division between the boy and his mother until the adventures occasioned by his presence help them find ways to grow beyond their estrangement.