Cookie Morgan wants to be a teacher when she grows up. Or a cowboy. After a series of enlightening events during the summer of 1950, she realizes that the heroes in her favorite westerns can't hold a candle to the ones in her tiny coal town in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Cookie and the other kids in her neighborhood spend an ample amount of their free time pretending to be the stars of their favorite cowboy movies and shows. Up to this point in their lives, they could only see these characters at the movie theater or on the small-screen television at Cullie's bar and restaurant. So it's a great surprise when Casey Morgan, Cookie's dad and a Reading Railroad engineer, is the first on their street to purchase a TV for home viewing. Cookie's imagination is spurred, but could she ever become a real hero? One day, that question is answered when she helps locate her little brother, Donnie, who has gone missing the week before school starts. Cookie realizes that heroes don't have to be grown-ups or movie stars and can be found almost anywhere, even in her hometown.