In which a young girl named Dorothy, with her kitten Eureka, arrives at a remote and rather somber station after a very delayed train journey disrupted by tremors of the earth, soon joined by a cheerful boy named Zeb who takes her towards a nearby ranch in a rather peculiar and somewhat dilapidated buggy. As the ground continues to quake dangerously beneath them, their tranquil ride turns suddenly perilous when the earth splits open, swallowing them and their horse into an ominous and uncertain descent.