Twelve-year-old Beatrice Miller copes with the ups and downs of friendships, puberty, and identity, guided by the wisdom and love of her beloved Mamaw and mom, the summer before seventh grade..

Upon her mother's death, Wavie Conley, eleven, must go live with a scheming aunt in the Kentucky town her mother left behind.

The adventures of the youngest Fairchild sisters, Bonnie and Debby, as they spend their summer in various moneymaking enterprises in the hill country of early 1900s' Kentucky.

Sixteen-year-old Amy, her cousin Ben, and Teddy, longtime friends until the previous summer, must put aside their differences and confront truths that tie their families to tragedy when Teddy's sister disappears in River Run, Kentucky.