In Canton, Texas, seventeen-year-old Mercy's dreams of a different life than her mother's are postponed by harsh circumstances, including the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, which forces her into doing domestic work for a loving, if troubled, family.
Sixteen-year-old Meghan Powers' happy life in Massachusetts changes drastically when her mother, one of the most prestigious senators in the country, becomes the front-runner in the race for United States President.
Orphaned at the age of four when her village in Vietnam is bombed, Kim is rescued by soldiers and raised in an orphanage, always finding comfort in her mothers last words--"Don't be afraid. I will always be with you.".
In Oregon, eleven-year-old Hope begins coping with her mother's verbal abuse by devising survival strategies for herself based on a history unit about the Holocaust, and meanwhile she works toward buying a pair of purple hiking boots by helping at a second-hand shop.
Ten-year-old Dolphin is determined to stay with her family, no matter what, but when her sister goes to live with her newly-discovered father, sending their mother further into manic-depression, Dolphin's life takes a turn for the better.
Eleven-year-old Julep O'Toole wants to convince her mom that she is old enough to wear makeup, have a cell phone, and choose her own clothes, but it takes a creative idea from the preteen to put mother and daughter on the same wavelength.
After a lifetime on the run with her mother, sixteen-year-old Chass begins to piece together her disturbing past--which involves a mysterious tape, a deceased popular singer, and secrets in a small Alabama town--when her mother disappears, but Chass has only six days to find her before being put into foster care, and someone dangerous wants to find Chass first.
