Ever since she was adopted by her parents, Culver Manor, with its hidden rooms and overgrown garden has been the one place Alice feels safe, the one place she can call home. Everything's perfect. Until it isn't. When she finds out her Mum is going to have a baby, Alice's world turns upside down. Will they love their real baby more than her? Why isn't she enough for them anymore? Alice doesn't know what to say, so she doesn't speak at all. She stays silent that day and the day after that, until six months have passed without her saying one single word.
Zack has everything he could want. His dad's a film stuntman, he lives in the best house on the best street and is Mr Popular at school. Everything's perfect. Until it isn't. Zack's dad is killed on set and he and his mum are forced to sell their house and move to a tiny cottage by the sea. Ripped from the life he once knew, Zack is angry at the world and looking for trouble. Then he meets Alice, the girl who doesn't speak, and together they begin to realise that sometimes it's when life seems less than perfect that the most magical things can happen.