When her mother dies Sparrow is left with only an aunt for a relative, and no human friends, because most of the residents of the small town of Beulah find her "unusual" and think her house near the Everglades is haunted (which it is)--in fact Sparrow's only real friend is the Boy, an unusually solid-seeming ghost who accompanies her everywhere, but never speaks, and who has a secret which Sparrow will need to discover, perhaps with the help of a family of town outcasts and a child fortune-teller.
