Eleven-year-old Danny Monteverde believes that the enchanted land of Rio Luna in his older sister's favorite book is real, and that if he can find the way to Rio Luna he will find his sister Pili there, because he does not believe that his sister would run away from the group home where they lived and leave him behind; but after years of being passed from one foster family to another his faith begins to fade--until one day he finds a mysterious book...