Includes discussion questions

"During the throes of the Great Depression, thirteen-year-old Silstice Trayson finds herself homeless, abandoned by her parents. Nearby, aging midwestern farmers Edna and Vernon Goetz are pillars of the community, but when do-gooder Edna takes up Silstice's cause, Vernon digs in his heels, displaying his true nature as an ornery curmudgeon. Theirs is a quiet-seeming community, but danger lurks beneath the bucolic facade. With so many youngsters leaving home to make it on their own, child trafficking has grown rampant, and Silstice and her two spirited young brothers soon find themselves in the sights of a ring of kidnappers that's exploiting local children into forced labor--and worse. Meanwhile, Vernon finds himself at risk of losing everything." -- Page [4] cover