Ned, the newsboy, bastard son of a whiskey-swilling prostitute in the small mountain town of Glen Alpine, NC, is befriended by the town's only doctor, who becomes his mentor.
They adopt an Army dog called Dawg, whose master, a disabled Army sergeant, has mysteriously disappeared.
Only Dawg knows the secret of the disappearance of Sgt.
Robert Penton.
The Veterans Affairs office mistakes Ned for the disabled sergeant and awards him a large pension, but Ned loses the money to a blackmailer who k.