At the turn of the twentieth century, in the oyster town of Crisfield, Maryland, ten-year-old Elsie Crockett and her younger sister Nora spend their days bent over buckets of brine. From dawn until dusk, they shuck oysters with rag-wrapped knives, their hands blistered and bleeding, their childhood slipping into the steam of the oyster houses. Paid in tokens that never seem to match their labor, the girls' family teeters on the edge of hunger, caught between survival and despair.

When reformers from Baltimore arrive to investigate unfair counts, and a young teacher named Miss Doyle opens a small settlement school, the tide begins to shift. For the first time, Elsie and Nora hold chalk as well as knives, learning to write the numbers that prove the truth of their stolen wages. But change comes slowly, and danger presses in from every side; foremen eager to dock buckets, owners who fear disruption, and mothers torn between hope and the risk of losing what little they have.

Based on the true history of child oyster shuckers in Crisfield, this moving novel follows the Crockett family through seasons of hardship, solidarity, and fragile victories. From the cruel silence of the sheds to the glow of the Settlement lantern, their story is one of endurance and quiet defiance; of children learning to claim their voices in a world determined to keep them silent.