Douglas Allen Deeds is a 15-year-old orphan explains his hopes for the Donner Party and a better life in California. Even though he knows that there are significant things putting the party back, he still believes in the men. He talks about many things through entries in his journal such as bad roads and fears of the Native Americans. There are definitely rough times that involve deaths of members and the waning number of wagons that are functional for the trip. They eventually find themselves trapped in the snow and almost starving. The Donner Party starts to turn on each other and become cannibals. In the epilogue, Deeds reaches and finds gold in California.
