During the summer between seventh and eighth grades, Jenna, her mother, and her little brother move in with her grandparents while her father is in a Washington State prison, but as Jenna tries to fit in and make friends it becomes increasingly difficult to comply with her mother's demands for secrecy.
Joe, rescued from an orphanage by Orange County Supervisor Will Trona, embarks on a dark and dangerous quest when he vows to find out why his adoptive father, Will Trona, an Orange County politician, was murdered.
After her grandmother dies, Zelly and her mother move to tiny Plunkit, where Zelly searches for her estranged father and helps the Nutfolk save their home from developers.
In 1933, when her father's foot injury makes it impossible for him to do farm work for a while, thirteen-year-old Agnes steps in, proving herself and revealing her understanding of him.
