To help her deal with her separation from her family, worry about her mother's serious operation, and suspicions about a new friend's abusive father, twelve-year-old Dawn creates an imaginary world while spending the summer of 1958 with her great-aunt and uncle in rural North Carolina.

Desperate for the prize money to escape her mother's abusive boyfriend, twelve-year-old Fud enters a beauty pageant, but her eerie connection to nearby coyotes helps her see who she is meant to be, and who she can truly save.

"Ever since her father died in a terrible accident, Maddy Gaines has worried a lot. She calls the police so often that she's on a first-name basis with the Sheriff. When a new boy moves to town, Maddy is convinced that he's not who he says he is-he's a boy who went missing six months ago. Maddy, her dog, her best friend, and her stepdad team up to see what he's hiding"--