Eight-year-old Ellie has to give up her life-long dream of getting a puppy after her parents agree to take in the dog that Great-aunt Margaret can no longer keep.
After Aunt Ernestus comes to visit, a family living in seclusion as caretakers for a cemetery find the time has come to rejoin the mainstream of society.
Drew, a member of a band of street performers in Baltimore, finds himself slipping back in time to sixteenth-century England, where he acquires the strength to deal with his unusual life style.
Jason's brother, sister, and parents all play baseball or soccer or tennis, but until his grandfather buys him a drum, Jason doesn't want to play anything.
Sarey resents a new family member, Faith, blaming her for her father's death which occurred when he saved Faith from a shipwreck off the Atlantic coast.
