Actor/Director Claude Earl Jones is brutally honest in this semiautobiographical portrayal of one man's journey out of the dust bowl. He pulls no punches describing his sometimes gut-wrenching, often humorous experiences growing up the son of migrant field workers. Books were his salvation in the numerous one-room schoolhouses he attended, acquiring an education, serving in the U.S. Army, teaching to stay alive, and realizing a successful acting and directing career.