Thirteen-year-old Rose Carlisle, a shy loner, is moving to a new town and a new school, a move that she is convinced will be awful. While spending the summer with her grandmother at the old family mansion called Fineweather, Rose meets a girl named Ring, and they become fast friends. The perfect summer is clouded by some unpleasant involvement with their nearest neighbor, Dooley Birdsong, and his "wolf-dog." When Birdsong makes some accusations against Rose, she must use her intelligence and powers of deduction to try and prove her innocence.

Rose learns to be more proactive and self-reliant, but she believes it's because Ring has told her what to do. How will she survive after they say their final goodbyes?

At summer's end, Rose's grandmother tells of a girl she met at Fineweather years ago. She sounds a lot like Ring. Could they be the same girl?