Disappointed when her father cannot fulfill his promise of buying her a horse for her thirteenth birthday, Lainey throws her energy into training a neighbor's cantankerous horse, with whom she soon falls in love.
Thirteen-year old Dodie and her new stepsister Anne gradually become friends as they investigate sounds of footsteps which may be those of two sisters drowned in a nearby marsh nearly forty years earlier.
Having grown to accept and love her stepmother Dora, thirteen-year-old Lyn is increasingly worried as tension grows between Dora and her father and he begins to be attracted to her friend Brian's mother instead, shattering her trust in him.
Things are difficult for weleve-year-old Jan and her mother after her father's death, and when it turns out that her beloved horse needs anoperation, Jan reluctantly gets money from an elderly woman whom she has befriended.
In helping his new friend and classmate Marla solve her problems with her unpleasant home life, eleven-year-old Willie finds a greater acceptance of his perfectionist father.
When fourteen-year-old Kelly is sent off to Florida to stay with her rigid grandparents after her mother's nervous breakdown, she learns the meaning of love and support.
Chad doesn't think his new foster family will be any better than the others, but after getting to know them during a summer at the Cape and after meeting a stray cat, he begins to change his mind.
While spending the summer at her cousin's farm in upper New York State, twelve-year-old Lexi finds that, of all her cousins, only withdrawn eleven-year-old Jeb, offers her friendship and Lexi decides to help him attain his heart's desire.
