When their grandfather arranges for them to spend two week at Sunny Oaks, the four Alden children enjoy settling into the routines of farm life but become suspicious about a mysterious horse locked in the stables.
The Alden children search for buried treasure on Blizzard Mountain, but a mysterious rival treasure hunter is determined to chase them off the mountain.
While visiting the seaport town of Ragged Cove, Massachusetts, the Alden children find the ship's log of the Flying Cloud, shipwrecked in 1869, supposedly during a mutiny.
The Alden children draw upon their resourcefulness to save the neighborhood firehouse from being torn down, while they also face a series of mysterious incidents connected with it.
At the same time that the Alden children's efforts to raise money for a new hospital wing are being sabotaged by nasty tricks, they find their attempts to befriend the new girl, Beth, frustrated by her strange behavior.