On a frigid January day, a train bound for Des Moines chugs across the Iowa prairie. In its makeshift passenger-baggage car sit a traveling salesman, a railroad worker, and a family of five. The husband has just been fired from his job at a shoe store, and he has sold their belongings to move his family to stay with his wife’s family. They hope this will combat their difficult financial situation and buy them time while he searches for a new job. The husband is an intelligent man but has not had the best luck in finding that he wants to do. His wife is also pregnant with their fifth child.   The train stops at an elevated part of the prairie that has managed to stay free from the crowding snow. The conductor steps out and walks to the cab of the train, speaking to his crew about detouring to Carthage to escape the blizzard. If they don’t reach a station soon, they will starve and freeze. Carthage happens to have a depot and resources the train can exploit. The engineer of the train agrees and puts the locomotive into full speed, racing to the little town. After a difficult journey there, the train pulls into Carthage, and the conductor takes his small crew into the depot. The ticket office is so ramshackle that the women’s waiting room has no stove and the men’s waiting room stove barely retains heat. The station agent also seems to be off-duty, but when the fireman further inspects the building, he finds the agent dead in his bed.    As the crew is examining the dead agent, the traveling salesman bursts into the office and tells them the woman on the train is going into labor. The conductor, who has experience with births, takes initiative and begins delegating work among the men to make her birth as comfortable as possible. They go about moving the body upstairs to free the bed, transporting the bed to the men’s waiting room, fetching coal for the stove, and retrieving hot water. After the woman is carried into the waiting room, the conductor takes the fireman with him to venture to the town to find a doctor. However, they make little progress in the heavy snow and low visibility, eventually deeming the endeavor too dangerous and heading back to the station.    Back at the depot, the conductor gives more orders for his men to take care of the family’s children and find food among the dead station agent’s stash. The husband also begins communicating with a nearby station using the depot’s telegraph, and when he notifies them of the previous agent’s death, he is offered the position of station agent instead. Ecstatic at the job opportunity to work with telegraphs, he tells his wife. In the morning, the ordeal is over and she has given birth to a baby girl. The day is cold, but calm, and the conductor tells the other children of their new sister. They tell him that their parents had previously decided that if they had a girl, her name would be Molly. The conductor begins preparing his men to go to the town and fetch supplies for the train and its passengers.