Seven-year-old Billy Miller starts second grade with a bump on his head and a lot of worries, but by the end of the year he has developed good relationships with his teacher, his little sister, and his parents and has learned many important lessons.
Rumpus Ridge, Wisconsin, is proud to have the biggest ball of string in the world, so when they lose their treasure to a nearby town they devise a clever plan to get it back.
In 1871 Wisconsin, thirteen-year-old Georgia sets out to find her sister Agatha, presumed dead when remains are found wearing the dress she was last seen in, and before the end of the year gains fame as a sharpshooter and foiler of counterfeiters.
Growing up near Boston with her free-spirited mother and old-world grandfather, twelve-year-old Emma has always felt out of place but when she attends the family reunion her father's family holds annually in Wisconsin, she is in for some surprises.
Seventeen-year-old Arden has been raised by her older brother, Scott, since their parents died when she was just six years old, so when Scott is presumed drowned in a snowmobile accident, Arden is convinced he's really run away.