Kate is a spoiled and selfish twenty year old. She is supposed to be helping on her father's farm but through her carelessness causes a terrible and expensive accident. Her parents take drastic action to force her to grow up. They give her a tumbledown cottage on the farm and a few animals and tell her she has to fend for herself. At first Kate is devastated but then she helps save the life of a beautiful Shire horse mare called The January Queen. Old Joe the ex-farmer and breeder who thought he would lose the mare when forced to retire at the age of eighty, is overjoyed. A warm friendship develops between the pair and Joe helps her make something of the smallholding. But when disaster strikes will Kate show she is made of sterner stuff than before.