Marissa, a shy self-conscious girl with a twisted leg, is attracted to a strikingly handsome visitor at her uncle's carousel but begins to suspect that he is a psychotic serial killer.
A young woman befriends a Chinese family despite the racism and fear that overwhelm the residents of her small western mining town at the end of the gold rush.
While staying at the Jumping Frog Inn, a bed-and-breakfast establishment run by her grandmother, eleven-year-old Miranda investigates a mystery involving stolen letters supposedly written by Mark Twain.
