Out of the Dust is narrated by Billie Jo Kelby, detailing her life near Joyce City, Oklahoma from January 1934 to December 1935, when she was fourteen and fifteen years old. This region of the Oklahoma Panhandle, close to the state border, was severely affected by dust storms and tornadoes, which ravaged the land and caused immense suffering for both people and animals who continued to live there. Billie Jo's father is a wheat farmer who, despite years of crop failures, holds steadfastly to the belief that rain will eventually come and restore the land's fertility. His faith is not merely optimism but a deep connection to the land, which has experienced cycles of abundance and hardship, making it impossible for him to imagine that the land won't eventually recover.

Billie Jo serves as an observer, interpreter, and participant in the traumatic events that her family faces. She witnesses death by dust and fire, starvation, abandonment, mutilation, and other calamities that would likely break the spirit of most people. She recounts these tragedies with an objective, poetic, and philosophical tone, leading readers to wonder about her emotional state as both a narrator and a person. However, the harsh reality for farmers trapped in the Dust Bowl during the peak of the Depression left them with no choice but to accept and deal with their circumstances, or risk becoming broken and sometimes insane. Billie Jo is a resilient survivor who maintains a balanced view of her abilities, limitations, and opportunities.

Since Out of the Dust is composed as journal entries by a fourteen-year-old girl, it may appear deceptively simple and can be understood and enjoyed by younger readers. However, it is a sophisticated piece of literature that offers the most profound rewards to readers familiar with American history of the 1930s, Freudian psychology, poetic forms and techniques, other Depression Era literature, mythology, and symbolism.