Two years after he survived a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness, a sixteen-year-old returns to the wild where he feels he belongs. In a temporary camp on the way to visit his friends, Brian Robeson finds a dog, wounded and whimpering. The dog is badly hurt, and as Brian cares for it, he worries about his friends. His instincts tell him to head north, quickly. With his new companion at his side, and with a terrible, growing sense of unease, he...

With her best friends pulling away from her, her newly-separated parents deciding she should spend the summer at her father's new home, and a babysitting job she does not want, Marley's life is already as precarious as an overfull water balloon when a cute boy enters the picture.