Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows Summary | Plot Summary

An older man on his way home breaks up a dogfight and discovers a courageous redbone hound that has been jumped by several other dogs. Taking the hound home to feed him and tend to his wounds, the man begins to reminisce about two redbone hounds that he recalls from more than fifty years ago. As he speaks, he takes down from his mantel a gold cup and a silver cup and settles by the fire to relate his story.

Ten-year-old Billy lives in the Ozarks of Oklahoma, the finest hunting country in the land. Billy longs for a pair of coonhounds, but he must settle for the three traps his father brings him. Trapping soon loses its excitement, though, and Billy cannot get the hounds out of his mind. Over the next two years Billy saves $50, having read in a magazine ad that a pair of hounds from Kentucky costs that amount. His grandfather, a storeowner, orders the pups for Billy and lets him know, two weeks later, that they are waiting for him at the depot in Tahlequah. Billy walks the twenty miles to town, where he has many surprises and adventures, including his first taste of soda pop. He gets his pups and heads for home. He and the pups spend their first night together in a cave, frightened by a prowling mountain lion. He then proudly starts home with his dogs, stopping on the way at the sycamore log where he had first prayed to God for them. There he names them Old Dan and Little Ann.

When Billy relates his Tahlequah experiences to his family, his parents tell him that living in town is their goal, for they want their children to have an education. This makes no sense to Billy as he goes about the task of building a doghouse and making collars for Dan and Ann. Now he needs a coonskin to train his hunting dogs, and he manages to trap one in a creative trap made according to his grandpa's instructions. Using the coonskin and the help of his oldest sister, Billy carefully begins training his pups. The comprehensive training process, including swimming lessons for the dogs, lasts until late fall.

At almost fourteen years of age Billy takes his hounds out for their first hunt. The first coon they "tree," however, goes up into the largest sycamore in the area. The only way Billy can get the coon and then sell its hide is to chop down the tree. This process takes him several days and involves the support and assistance of his entire family. At one point Grandpa helps him make a scarecrow at the foot of the tree to keep the coon in place while Billy rests. Ultimately Billy is about to give up when, after a hurried prayer, he sees a strange wind blow the sycamore down. Billy's mama makes that first coonskin into a hat for him.

Through the "fur season" Billy and the hounds hunt successfully, and Billy sells the hides to his grandfather, who keeps a record of all the skins. He is thrilled to join the men in hunting conversation at the store. Billy hunts by night and sleeps by day now, giving his father the money the hides earn him. Following a five-day blizzard, Billy and the dogs resume hunting in icy, slippery conditions. Tracking a coon across the partially frozen river, Little Ann falls into the frigid water and nearly freezes to death. Billy tries in vain to rescue her and finally goes behind a giant sycamore and cries. He whispers a quick prayer and then his lantern handle falls with a clang, giving him the idea he needs to save his dog.

Billy is now "famous" as a local coon hunter. One day at the store, two local hooligans bet Billy that his dogs cannot tree what they call the "ghost coon." Grandpa calls the bet and gives Billy the money to pay, should he fail. Keeping his plans secret, Billy takes his dogs to the Pritchard property the next night and proceeds to hunt with the boys. The ghost coon is wily, and when his dogs seem ready to give up, Billy pays the two-dollar bet. The coon emerges again, though, and is now successfully treed, but Billy does not have the heart to kill it. A fight ensues, Rubin Pritchard beats on Billy and Pritchard's dog, Old Blue, takes on Ann and Dan. As Dan and Ann get the upper hand, Rubin releases Billy and grabs Billy's ax, threatening to kill Dan. As Billy calls his dogs off, Rubin accidentally trips and falls on the ax, killing himself.

A few weeks later Grandpa announces that he has entered Dan and Ann in a big hunting competition. Billy agrees to enter the contest with them, and Papa will go, too. The three hunters and two dogs head for the contest in Grandpa's buggy, hoping to win the gold cup for treeing the most coons. In the crowded, boisterous tent-city of the competition, Billy is respected like any other hunter. As the festivities open, Little Ann takes a silver cup for "best looking dog," and then Billy waits for his assigned night to hunt. His little family group goes out with a contest judge, and his dogs tree three coons, enough to tie the current leader. In the run-off competition, their hunting begins successfully, but a sleet storm blows in and the group has trouble staying in touch with the dogs. As the storm rages, Grandpa is temporarily lost, having sprained his ankle. Through the night the storm turns to a blizzard and the dogs never return to the campfire.

In the morning a search party finds Billy's group. They carry Grandpa out of the woods and lead Billy to the tree where his dogs, nearly frozen to death, have kept a coon treed all night. That is the final coon Billy needs to win the contest. He wins the gold cup and a $300 jackpot! Grandpa is taken to town for medical care and Billy and his father return home in triumph. When Mama sees the money, she declares that her prayers have been answered.

After three weeks of pleasant hunting, the dogs track a mountain lion. When the lion attacks the dogs, Billy tries to save them but falls and is himself, attacked by the lion. As the cat springs, though, the two dogs jump as one and sink their teeth into the lion's throat, giving Billy a chance to kill the lion with his ax. Within hours Old Dan dies of his wounds and Billy finds Little Ann curled up next to his body. Billy buries Dan, but Ann is inconsolable. Within a few days she has gone to Dan's grave where she lies down and dies. Billy cannot understand why God would give him the two dogs he prayed for and then take them away.

Billy's parents, unable to console him, explain that with the money his dogs won in the contest, along with all the money saved from his coon skins sales, they can now afford to leave the farm and move into town where the children will be educated. Billy goes to say goodbye to his dogs at their graves and finds them shaded by a beautiful, mythical red fern, said to be planted only by angels. Billy now realizes that the awful pain of loss has been removed. He is ready to move on with his life. Finally we return to the old man, whom we now know as the grown Billy, and he tells us he's never been back to those hills since.