When twelve-year-old Ellie inherits an old Vermont farm from her cruel and heartless grandmother Aurelia, she reads a set of diaries written by an ancestor and discovers secrets from the past.
A strange friendship develops between a young Chinese refugee who is spending the summer at Green Knowe and a gorilla who has escaped from the London Zoo.
When she falls under the influence of the boy-hating, snobbish Jessica, fourth grader Maddie is manipulated into turning on her best friend Charlie and joins Jessica in sending him spiteful anonymous notes in school.