Told from multiple viewpoints, high school Junior Jenny of Philadelphia spends a semester at a Quaker boarding school in Sheffield, England, near where her brother is avoiding the Vietnam draft, and where everyone carries close-held secrets.
When her beloved sister Claire is struck by a car and winds up in a coma, Nat's anticipated summer of working and hanging out with friends is transformed into a nightmare of doctors and hospitals.
In 1901, fourteen-year-old Mable Riley dreams of being a writer and having adventures while stuck in Perth County, Ontario, assisting her sister in teaching school and secretly becoming friends with a neighbor who holds scandalous opinions on women's rights.