Sydney Cabella talks to animals. Big animals. Wild animals. Endangered animals. They never talk back. Until one day, they do. An intuitive eleven-year-old Sydney, her brainiac twin sister Sierra, and her photojournalist parents arrive at Svalbard, a tiny group of Norwegian islands near the North Pole. As the family explores the Arctic ecosystem, Sydney accidentally hits her head and when she wakes up, the impossible has happened: she can talk to animals and the animals can finally talk back!

The first animal who speaks up is a ringed seal named Ringo who needs her help big time. What Ringo tells Sydney is alarming. Loss of habitat and global warming have pushed this ecosystem to the brink of collapse. What in the world does the seal expect Sydney to do about it? With just 72 hours before they leave the Arctic, the twins must put their squabbles aside to decipher Ringo's clues, messages, and sea ice antics. When he leads them back to the elusive polar bear, Sydney realizes just how interconnected their lives really are. One depends on the other. And both are depending on her.