Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

"Twelve-year-old Belle Martin and her family move to Mingo, Colorado, in 1910 when the U.S. government offers 320 acres of land free to homesteaders." --

"When a collection of autographed sports memorabilia mysteriously disappears, Bryce and Ashley Timberline try to find it for their friend Jeff, who is dying of cancer."--

"Because his father is in the Army, Oliver Jeffries has never lived in any one place for long, but he was hoping that Colorado would be different because he is the starting wide receiver on the Jackson Middle School's football team--so when he gets word that his family is moving again he is bitterly disappointed, but he has one more game and he is determined to make it a good one." --

Thirteen-year-old Trina's family left Bohemia for a Colorado coal town to earn money to buy a farm, but by 1901 she doubts that either hard work or hoping will be enough, even after a strange fish seems to grant her sisters' wishes.