During the summer of her fourteenth birthday, Lou and her friends find romance when they vacation at a posh beach house, while Lou's mother travels on a book tour for her new science fiction novel.
Lou finds it confusing and difficult to be thirteen, especially with her mother and Richard's romance heating up, being separated from her best friend Mina at school, and getting another letter from Paul when she never answered the first one.
Twelve-year-old Lou's attempt to play matchmaker for her mother and Richard are foiled by a mandatory visit with her grandmother, which is marked by boredom, Brussel sprouts, and Memaw's own plans for Mom's love life.
Struggling to deal with her father's death, the impending sale of the boat that has been her home for six years, anger toward her mother, and her own guilt, fourteen-year-old Molly decides to sail by herself to Tahiti.
Seeking a cure for her sick mother, Courage "Rage" Winnoway and her dogs pass through a magical gateway to a strange land known as Valley where they must find, before the sand in an enchanted hourglass runs out, the powerful wizard noted for his healing magic.
