During summer vacation, while Anna and her brother Ben, along with Bridget and her brother, Sam, are participating in the Summer Reading Adventure at the local library, the town council announces they are building low-income housing for the homeless. While the housing is being constructed a tent community has been established on an old soccer field on the other side of a haunted swamp. Sam is upset by this turn of events, but his anger is only beginning.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to them, the girls befriend Zoe, one of the homeless people living in the tents. The girls spend time together tracking down clues supplied by the books they are borrowing from the library that will eventually lead to a prize at the end of the Summer Reading Adventure.

When Bridget and Sam’s grandfather dies in a tragic car accident Sam’s anger increases when it is discovered that Zoe’s father was the drunk driver in the truck that crashed into his grandfather’s car. The family lawyer reveals in the will that the farm and house have been left to the community to build low income housing for the homeless.

Sam’s anger reaches a boiling point and he directs it at Zoe, hatching a plan to get back at the people he thinks are taking away everything he holds dear.