Twelve-year-old Scarlet doesn't have an easy life. She's never known her dad, her mum suffers from depression and her younger brother Red has Asperger's and relies heavily on her to make the world a safe place for him. Scarlet does this by indulging Red's passion for birds, telling him stories about the day they'll go to Trinidad and see all the wonderful birds there (especially his beloved Scarlet Ibis), saving her money to take him to the zoo, helping him collect bird feathers and even caring for a baby pigeon who is nesting outside his window.

But things with her mum are getting harder, and after a dangerous accident, Scarlet and Red are taken into foster care and separated. As Scarlet struggles to cope with the sudden changes in her life and her complex feelings towards her mum, the one thing she won't give up on is finding Red. Nothing is going to get in her way - even if it might destroy the new possibilities offered to her by her foster family.