Jennifer and Jeff, a sister and brother, are at their grandmother's house, and she tells them the story of her great grandmother, Frances Mary Kelly, and Frances's siblings.
In 1860, the Kelly children were living in New York with their widowed mother. After her son Mike was caught stealing, she succeeds in getting him to not be sent to prison by sending all her children on the orphan train. The story continues with their ride to St. Joseph, Missouri and to the kids being adopted by different families - 4 in all. The first book continues with Frances (the oldest) and Petey (the youngest), who are adopted by the Cummings family. Frances meets the Mueller family, including Johnny - one of the sons The next 3 books are about the other families which adopted the children - the Friedrich family and Mike (book 2), the Bowder family and Megan (book 3), and the Swenson family and Danny and Peg (book 4). After Olga Swenson dies, Danny has his foster father Alfred bring the children's mother for the purpose of Alfred and the mother marrying each other. She does come over, but in the end they don't marry each other - they each marry someone else; Danny stays with Alfred and Peg moves to live with their mother.
The fourth book ends fairly close to the Civil War. In the fifth book, Mike - living at Fort Leavenworth - and his friend Todd go to join the Union army. Todd makes Mike promise that if Todd dies, Mike will make sure that Todd's sister would get his watch. Then, during battle, Todd is killed and Mike is injured. The watch os taken by a Confederate soldier named Jiri Logan, and the rest of the book is about Mike healing from his injuries, finding the watch, and delivering it back to the fort.
The sixth book is about Peg and Danny. Frances brings a mysterious woman to the place where her mother and Peg live. This woman's sister and brother-in-law move near the Swensons where Danny lives. The book is about Peg and Danny understanding these people's motives.
The seventh book takes place in 1866, after the end of the war. Johnny had fought in the war on the Union side and had been in a Confederate prison for a year, and was still suffering mentality from the experience. Frances, now 19, is asked to bring a child back to New York - he had been brought west on an orphan train, and his aunt and uncle showed up after he left. Once there, she is asked to take a new group of kids west, and the rest of the book is about her journey and the kids.
The books in the series:
- A Family Apart, 1987
- Caught in the Act, 1988
- In the Face of Danger, 1988
- A Place to Belong, 1989
- A Dangerous Promise, 1994
- Keeping Secrets, 1995
- Circle of Love, 1997
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- The treatment Mike gets from Mr. Friedrich.
- Caroline Whittaker's father beat her. He disappeared after his wife's death. Caroline's biggest fear is that her father will find her.
- Adoptive Name Change: According to Claudine Hunter from the Children's Aid Society, one of the reasons that some times it's difficult to keep track of the children is because "a child's name will be changed".
- Adoptive Peer Parent: At the end of tge series, Johnny Mueller (age 20) and Frances (age 19) plan to get married and adopt Eddie Marsh (age 11).
- Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Invoked by Megan regarding Aesop's "The Fox and the Crow". However, at the end of the book, she actually invokes the correct meaning with her playing the fox and a dangerous murderer being the crow.
- Ankle Drag: After Mike gets the watch from Jiri, Jiri ultimately finds Mike on a ship. A fight starts in which Jiri tries to take the watch back, but his ankle gets caught in the rope, causing him to fall into the Missouri River.
- Bad Habits: "Reverend" Diller, who turns out to really be a robber.
- Batman Gambit:
- Mike does a successful one against Gunter Friedrich. Gunter had been causing trouble to frame Mike. When Andrew MacNair and Katherine Banks were present, Mike said he was going outside. He hid in the corner, waited for Gunter to go past, and returned to the adults. Sure enough, with Mike having a strong alibi, Gunter came running in and claiming that Mike had set the privy on fire.
- Faced with a dangerous murderer, Megan causes him to show off how good he is at shooting at distant targets - until he runs out of ammunition.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: While at the Friedrich farm, Mike delivered letters from Marta, who was living on the farm at the time, to the neighbor Cory Blair, who Mr. Friedrich hated. Later on, during the Civil War, Cory - now fighting on the Confederate side - when he finds Mike injured and wearing a Union uniform, prevents Jiri from killing him and - at Mike's request - finds him a doctor who would give him medical care without amputating the injured leg, the standard treatment at the time.
- Bookends: The first and last books are from Frances's point of view and include Orphan Train trips.
- Cain and Abel: Gunter, the biological son of Mr. and Mrs. Friedrich, repeatedly causes trouble for the purpose of framing Mike, their foster son. Gunter was hoping that Mike would be sent back to New York, knowing that if he was he would be put in prison for theft. Gunter's biological brother had died in prison.
- Caught Up in a Robbery: In the first book, a group of robbers robs the passengers on the train. Mike succeeded in taking back some of the stolen goods and returning them to the passengers.
- Continuity Nod: The second letter Megan got from Frances had a little bit of interesting news, and "the rest of the letter went on and on about someone named Johnny Mueller"; this last part "filled most of the sheet of paper". This fits nicely between the friendly conversations Frances had when she first arrived at the Cummings house and when she brought the slaves to the Mueller farm in the first book, and when she intended to marry him in the seventh.
- Corporal Punishment: Mr. Friedrich does this to Mike.
- Dark Secret: Ulrich, the older biological son of the Friedrich family. He eventually went to prison for stealing. After he died in prison, the family discovered how much he stole- and escaped from Europe to the United States.
- Disappeared Dad: Lucy Griggs was kicked out of her apartment when her mother died. No mention of her father.
- Don't Split Us Up:
- No family is going to adopt 6 children, so the Kelly children will obviously be separated.
- The group of children Frances escorts includes one set of 3 siblings and 2 sets of 2. One of the sets of 2 is split, the other not; the youngest of the 3 is seperated from her brothers.
- Doorstop Baby:
- Belle Dansing - age 9 on her trip west - was a "foundling, left on a doorstep".
- Same with Virginia Hooper, age 10, who has an imaginary family she created.
- Field Promotion: Captain Taylor was promoted to major. Captain Blakey, too.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- The Bowder family's dog, Lady, gets bitten by a rattlesnake while preventing Megan from it.
- Peg risked her life to go and save Mrs. Hennessey and Mrs. Parker from Confederate thugs. The thugs, however, captured her along with the women, and their lives were saved by Danny - who was sick and was supposed to stay in bed - showing up at the right time. After being completely successful, he fainted - and he died the next night.
- Heroic Vow: The titular promise of the fifth book: Mike's promise to deliver Todd's watch to his sister in event of his death.
- Historical Domain Character:
- Charles Loring Brace is personally involved with getting the Kelly children - including convincing the judge to give Mike a second chance.
- When the Orphan Train group with the Kelly kids reaches St. Louis, the mayor Jeff Thompson meets the group.
- Danny is promised to be allowed to go with Alfrid Swenson to the meeting with Ralph Waldo Emerson. Unfortunately, due to the tension at the time he actually shows up, Mr. Swenson ultimately changes his mind.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Varient. Mike promises Todd, at his request, to ensure that in case of his (Todd's) death, his watch will be delivered to his sister. Todd never actually hands the watch to Mike, in fact it's stolen by an enemy soldier, and Mike risks his life to retrieve it.
- Indentured Servitude: Marta's status at the Friedrich household had previously been that, although her term was already over before Mike arrived.
- Innocent Awkward Question: In "A Family Apart", Frances overhears a conversation about the Underground Railroad. Later, when she asks her new foster father what the Underground Railroad is, he refuses to answer.
- It's Personal: Both Mike's need to get the watch back from Jiri, and Jiri's need not to let Mike get away with taking it.
- The Jinx: Megan believes herself to be one.
- Kids Play Match Breaker: Danny tries to get his foster father and biological mother to marry each other. When both decide not to, and each finds an other match, Danny tries to break the alternate matches.
- Kids Play Matchmaker: After his foster mother dies, Danny tries to match his foster father and biological mother.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The Cummings family's dog is named Barker.
- Maternity Crisis: Emma Bowder goes into labor while the men, including her husband, are out for a dangerous murderer - who had managed to avoid the searchers and was actually in the house. Luckily, the family's foster 12-year-old daughter was able to get the situation under control.
- Missing Mom: Will Scott was brought to the Children's Aid Society by his father, who is unable to care for him due to the nature of his job. Apparently leaving Will with his mother is not an option.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Mike's suspicion of Mr. Friedrich.
- My God, What Have I Done? :
- A Confederate soldier who cries "I shot my pa"
- Subverted with Peg. At one point she thinks she was helping a Confederate spy, but she was actually helping a union spy.
- Nephewism:
- Frances's friend, Mara Robi, lives with her aunt and uncle.
- Stefan Gromeche is returned to New York so he can live with his aunt and uncle.
- Caroline Whittaker's aunt tried to care for her after Caroline's mother died and her abusive father disappeared.
- Nosy Neighbor - Peg and Danny looking into the question of whether or not Mrs. Hennessey and the Parkers - their respective neighbors - are Confederate spies.
- Only Known by Their Nickname - Peg is the most obvious (real name is Margaret), but Mike, Danny and Petey are also nicknames.
- Outliving One's Offspring:
- The back story of some of the foster families who take the Kelly children.
- Todd Blakey was killed in battle, his parents both alive
- Danny Kelly, who is outlived both by his biological mother, and by Mr. Swenson and his second wife (Danny's foster parents).
- Parental Abandonment: Despite its name, some orphan train riders had living parents, and in some cases these parents actually sent their children on the orphan train because the parents couldn't afford to give the children a good childhood. The Kelly children were such a case.
- Raised by Grandparents: The back story of Margaret di Capo.
- Robbing the Dead: Jiri Logan steals Todd's watch from his dead body.
- Single Parents Are Undesirable: The Orphan Train has an explicit rule to that effect.
- Snake Oil Salesman: "Dr." Claudius Mundy
- Story Book Opening: The format of each book. A little bit of daily activity, the Grandmother reads a section of Frances's diary, followed by the main part of the book which is based on information in said diary, and then a bit of discussion between the grandmother and her grandchildren about that story and a teaser for the next.
- Survivor's Guilt: Johnny Mueller clearly suffers from this in the final book.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Having promised her mother to remain with her youngest brother, Pete, and believing that she is more likely to succeed as a boy, she pretends to be. At the end of the first book, she stops pretending. Interestingly enough, her sister Peg is adopted by the same family as Danny.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: The local Marshal in northern Kansas. After Frances had delivered the runaway slaves to the Mueller house and the Marshal found evidence to that, he said that he needed to arrest Frankie, a 13-year-old who had just been adopted off an Orphan Train from New York. However, he had "no evidence" against the foster family, and backed off once finding out that "Frankie" was really a girl and the evidence had an other "explanation".
- Title Drop: Circle of Love: Frances tells the children she ecsorts to Missouri that a family doesn't need to be the parents and the children born to them - it's "a circle of love", which means "love given and love returned".
- Twisted Christmas: In the Swenson household, when the doctor says that Olga would be dying soon. She dies less than a week later. Danny had previously suspected that she would die, but had been told not to talk about it.
- Underground Railroad: Mr. Cummings, the father in the family which took Frances and Petey, discusses the Underground Railroad with several neighbors. Later on, Frances finds out that the Cummings are part of it — and Frances brings a couple of slaves to the Muellers, an other family where the father had been in this discussion.
