Twelve-year-old Katie Brant is used to getting everything her own way. She lives with her grandparents, two uncles, and her Aunt Mattie in a farm/boardinghouse in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains of New York State in the early 1920s. With the exception of her formidable grandmother, everyone spoils her because her mother died when she was born and her father is away for long stretches of time, working for the O&W Railroad. But this year, as the tourist season starts and the family, including Katie’s cousins Nellie and Muriel, beds down in the attic to make room to take in summer boarders, Katie’s world changes in ways that force her to take a hard look at herself and the way she treats both friends and family. She soon learns that choices have consequences.