Twelve-year-old rill foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s mississippi river shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, rill is left in charge, until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a tennessee children’s home society orphanage, the foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents – but they quickly realize the dark truth…