Lavender and the rest of the sixth-graders are on a camping trip to the Chiricahua wilderness, but the trip seems cursed from the start, and when a flash flood splits the group up Lavender finds herself lost, together with her former best friend Marisol, mean-girl Rachelle, and a boy John who has been behaving like a surly jerk since the start. They have only one pack of supplies and only the most basic wilderness knowledge, but if they are to survive they need to put their differences aside and work as a team or all that will be left of them are their sun-bleached bones.
