In 1963 at a Maine summer camp, fourteen-year-old Amy Becker is forced to face the camp bully, Rory, family secrets revealed by her cousin Robin, and worry about having to leave her mentally challenged brother with their cold, harsh mother.

The discovery of a packet of old letters sends seventeen-year-old Abby Schoenberg to Nantucket to unravel a family mystery about her grandmother's past, but things get complicated when Abby meets the cute grandson of a prominent family who wants to stop her from investigating.

Summer, 1991. The people of Cuba are living in el periodo especial en tiempos de paz - the special period in times of peace. That's what the government insists that this era must be called, but the reality behind these words is starvation. Hunger has made Liana brave: she finds the courage to skip a summer of so-called volunteer farm labor, even though she risks government retribution. Amado also refuses to comply, so he wanders alone, trying to discover...