When a new teacher arrives at her coastal Maine school and fails to appreciate her outspoken nature, young Piper discovers a magical fairy tree in her yard where she finds objects that help her through conflicts.

His mother left three years ago, so when twelve-year-old Flip's thieving father dies he goes to live with his stern and hostile uncle on the remote Dutch island of Mossum; there he works on the farm, dreams of his mother coming to get him, deals with the local bullies, and his only "friend' is a strange, mute girl whom he thinks of as the ghost girl--until he rescues a horse from the stormy sea and discovers a new purpose in caring for his charge....