Eleven-year-old Ian and his Vietnam veteran father have been homeless for years, but now his father has found a perfect place for them—an abandoned city courthouse with heat, plenty of bathrooms, and lots of exits and entrances.

Then, two things happen that threaten Ian's fragile security: his father disappears, leaving Ian to fend for himself with the survival skills he's learned through the years, and Ian discovers that a local museum is mounting an exhibition of kites in the courthouse.Suddenly, Ian's safe hideaway is filled with people—and with extraordinary, beautiful kites that spark Ian's imagination and draw him out of his shadow existence. Will the kites be Ian's downfall...or his salvation?