Eleven-year-old Larch has depended on her own rules to help her cope with the life she and her mother share in a trailer in a small Ohio town, but her rules do not help her deal with a rat-catching dog, her best friend's crush, and the truth she learns about her father's death.

When thirteen-year-old Matt's older brother Tom moves to a different hospital to receive a "treatment of last resort" for his cancer, Matt tries to adjust to a new home and school, a new baseball team, and his feelings about his brother.