The week of her tenth birthday, Alice and her parents go to Sanibel Island, Florida, just as they do every year, but this time some of the people who are always there are missing and some new people have come, which unsettles Alice, who wants things to be exactly the same as they alway are.

Looking forward to a trip to the beach, where he hopes to find a seashell that will enable him to hear ocean sounds, Splat the Cat is frustrated by his inability to find anything but broken shells until he receives help from a special new friend.

Fleeing to the U.S. border, Sitlati finds a conch shell detailed with ancient markings that connects her to Calizto, a young Aztec warrior in 1521 Tenochtitlan, and together they fight to survive--and for their love--across centuries.

In a dingy shack in the less-than-desirable Indian neighborhood he calls home, twelve-year-old Anand is entrusted with a conch shell that possesses mystical powers. His task is to return the shell to its rightful home many hundreds of miles away. Accompanying him are Nisha, a headstrong but resourceful child of the streets, and a mysterious man of indeterminate age and surprising resources named Abadhyatta. His quest will take him farther from home...