Out of the Dust is the story of Billie Jo, a teenage girl living in the Oklahoma Panhandle during the Dust Bowl. Billie is an only child, though her mother gets pregnant in 1934 when Billie is 14 years old. Billie is excited to have a younger sibling, though she worries about the conditions the child will be born into. Dust storms regularly ravage the Panhandle, killing people and crops. Billie Jo’s father is a wheat farmer, and each storm rips more of his crops away until there is almost none left. Additionally, Billie Jo’s mother gives some of the few resources they have away to community members who need them more. Even when Billie Jo’s mother is close to giving birth, she looks malnourished because food is so scarce.
One day, Billie Jo’s father leaves a pail of kerosene next to the stove. Billie Jo’s mother mistakes it for water and starts a fire inside the house. While her mother runs outside and yells to her father, Billie Jo picks up the pail, which is now on fire, and throws it outside. Tragically, the pail’s contents catch Billie Jo’s mother as she runs back into the house and set her on fire. Horrified, Billie Jo jumps on her mother and tries to put the fire out. Eventually, the flames subside, but not before doing substantial damage. The accident leaves Billie Jo’s mother close to death. Additionally, the fire mutilates Billie Jo’s hands. A few days later, Billie Jo’s mother gives birth, but she dies in the process, and the baby does not last a full day outside her womb. Billie Jo names the child Franklin, and she and her father bury her mother and Franklin together.
After these horrifying events, Billie Jo and her father become emotionally distant from each other. Billie Jo feels alone, scared, and angry about what happened. Additionally, she does not like that people treat her differently because of her burned hands. Her injuries also mean that she cannot play the piano, which is unfortunate because it is her favorite thing to do, and she is musically gifted. On top of everything else, Billie Jo and her father gets caught in multiple severe dust storms that almost kill them. Although they make it out alive, Billie Jo desperately wants to get out of the Panhandle.
Fed up with her father and the terrible climate, Billie Jo decides to set out on her own in search of a better life. She catches a train and gets all the way to Arizona before deciding to turn around. During her time in isolation on the train, she decides life on her own would be too lonely, and she would rather have her solemn father than no one. After returning to the Panhandle, Billie Jo’s relationship with her father improves. Her father also secures a loan from the government to help get the farm back on its feet. Additionally, the weather begins to improve, and the crops look better than they have in a long time.
While Billie Jo was away, her father began a relationship with a woman named Louise. Louise slowly works her way into Billie Jo’s life, though she is careful never to act as a replacement for Billie Jo’s mother. Billie Jo is wary at first, but she quickly takes a liking to Louise, and before long the two are behaving like mother and daughter. Billie Jo hopes Louise will eventually move in with her and her father. The novel ends as Billie Jo begins practicing the piano again with a promising harvest on the horizon.
