It's fair to say that Sal's none too thrilled about her new home. The small Ohio town of Euclid strikes her as pretty boring, to say the least. It's certainly not a patch on Bybanks. For one thing, there's no nature to speak of, just a minuscule patch of grass out front, which, as Sal ruefully observes, wouldn't be enough to keep a cow alive for more than five minutes.

The contrast with Bybanks really couldn't be greater. Back there, Sal had huge fields and wide-open places to explore. But in Euclid, everything seems so small, so incredibly cramped. It's as if Sal's whole world has shrunk all of a sudden. And her new house is no better. As well as all the rooms being tiny, it has a small cement patio out back bordered by a wooden fence, exactly the same kind as all the neighbors. No wonder that Sal's so unhappy; no wonder that she feels fenced in by her new living arrangements.

She doesn’t like it much. Sal and her father John have moved from a farm in Bybanks, Kentucky, to the small city of Euclid, Ohio, now that Sal’s mother has left the family. The house is small, and Sal says she’s left things behind in Kentucky. But she’s made friends with Phoebe Winterbottom, who is in her class at school. Hanging out with Phoebe helps Sal put aside thoughts of her own mother, although these memories surface regularly. It also helps her deal with her father’s new friendship with Margaret Cadaver, the red-haired woman who lives next door to the Winterbottoms. Sal doesn’t really want to know what’s going on between them. Phoebe and Sal can keep an eye on the Cadaver house, though; and strange activities seem to go on there. Both girls have active imaginations, and this makes for plenty of adventure and shared experiences.