Lina Karpenter expected changes after the death of her mother. What she couldn't foresee was the entrance of a father she thought was dead, and a new life centered in the southern world of gun-toting fifteen-year-olds who drive dinghies and pickup trucks. Navigating her strange southern surroundings, Lina begins to question her feelings for both a girl and an African American boy, neither considered commonplace in the south. Her troubles compound, when on her sixteenth birthday she unknowingly receives an ancient gift, opening her eyes to the thoughts of others and the doorway to another world.

Aided by an ancient Shaman, and his bag of tricks; a studious geek, and his big book of no answers; and the school's most desired hunk, Lina must find a malicious spirit who has entered her world, intent on fulfilling a two-hundred-year-old promise. As Lina starts putting together the pieces of the puzzle, she soon realizes she is building a new future, one that will take her on a journey of self-discovery, where she finds love, friendship, and a fresh start in places she didn't expect to find them.