"Thirteen-year-old Bina has a long summer ahead of her. She and her best friend, Austin, usually do everything together, but he's off to soccer camp for a month, and he's been acting kind of weird lately anyway. So it's up Bina to see how much fun she can have on her own. At first, it's a lot of boredom, bad TV and guitar practice. Things look up when Bina finds an un-likely companion in Austin's older sister, Charlie--they like the same music, and...

Tara is forced to move in with her cousins after her house burns down. She faces a difficult adjustment while her mother is away trying to earn money. Interwoven with this story is that of Tara's ancestors, who in 1859 were convinced by a mysterious stranger to put all their money into searching their property for gold.