Where the Red Fern Grows recap

Framed as a grown man's memory, the novel tells how a poor Ozark boy named Billy Colman spent two years earning the money to buy a pair of redbone coonhound pups, Old Dan and Little Ann. Billy trains the dogs into an extraordinary hunting team, and together they roam the hills treeing raccoons and growing locally famous. Their adventures include a deadly rivalry with the rough Pritchard boys that ends in one boy's accidental death, and a championship hunt in which the little hounds win a gold cup and prize money during a blizzard. The bond between boy and dogs is total. It ends in tragedy when the dogs fight a mountain lion: Old Dan is killed, and the grieving Little Ann soon dies on his grave. Billy buries them together, and the family uses the dogs' winnings to move to town. At the graves Billy finds a red fern, which legend says only an angel can plant, and it eases his grief as he says goodbye to the animals he loved.

The story is framed by a grown man in a city who, after rescuing a mistreated hound, is moved to remember his boyhood in the Ozark hills. As a poor farm boy of about ten, Billy Colman is consumed by a desperate desire to own a pair of coonhounds, dogs his family cannot afford. His longing grows into an obsession, and when he finds a magazine advertisement offering hunting pups for sale, he resolves to earn the money himself, however long it takes.

Billy works tirelessly for two years, selling berries, produce, and bait to fishermen and trappers until he has saved the fifty dollars the pups will cost. He entrusts the money to his grandfather, who runs the local store, to place the order. When word comes that the pups have arrived at the depot in the distant town of Tahlequah, Billy is overjoyed and determined to fetch them himself, setting out alone on a long journey to bring his dogs home.

Billy travels to town, faces the strangeness of the place, and collects his two redbone pups, then walks the long miles back through the hills with them. He names them Old Dan and Little Ann and begins the patient work of training them to hunt raccoons. With his grandfather's guidance and his own fierce dedication, and by keeping a hard promise to chop down an enormous tree, Billy and his dogs make their first catch, proving the remarkable team the two hounds will become.

Through the hunting season Old Dan and Little Ann prove extraordinary, treeing coon after coon and growing famous in the hills. Billy's confidence grows with them, even against a wily raccoon that seems impossible to catch. Trouble comes through the rough Pritchard boys, who provoke Billy into a bet that his dogs cannot tree a legendary 'ghost' coon. The wager ends in tragedy when one of the Pritchard brothers dies in a terrible accident during the hunt, casting a shadow over Billy.

Billy's grandfather enters him and his dogs in a championship coon hunt, and the three travel to compete against the region's finest hunters. Little Ann wins a prize for her beauty, and in a brutal blizzard the little hounds track and tree coon after coon. Despite danger to the dogs and an injury to Grandpa, Billy's team wins the championship, the gold cup, and a jar of prize money, a triumph that means everything to his struggling family.

Back home, Old Dan and Little Ann tree a mountain lion, and in the savage fight that follows the big cat mortally wounds Old Dan. Despite Billy's efforts, Old Dan dies of his injuries. Little Ann, refusing to go on without her companion, stops eating and soon dies of grief upon his grave. Heartbroken, Billy buries them together. The prize money the dogs earned helps the family at last move to town for a better life. Before he leaves, Billy discovers a sacred red fern growing between the two graves, a plant that local legend says only an angel can plant, and he takes it as a sign that his dogs are at peace. The grown Billy who began the story understands at last why the memory has never left him.

Old Dan and Little Ann corner and tree a mountain lion, but the cat turns on them, and in the vicious fight it fatally wounds Old Dan, who dies soon after despite Billy's care. Little Ann, unwilling to live without him, refuses food and dies of grief lying on Old Dan's grave. Billy, devastated, buries the two hounds side by side. The money the dogs won in the championship allows Billy's long-struggling family to leave the hills and move to town, the better future his mother had prayed for. As they prepare to go, Billy finds a rare red fern growing up between the two graves. Local legend holds that only an angel can plant a red fern, and the sight comforts him, letting him believe his dogs are at rest and finally easing part of his grief. The adult Billy who opened the story is left still carrying the memory of the two dogs and the sacred red fern that marks their resting place.