Twelve-year-old Mary Frances "Frankie" Jackson has been sent to California for the summer to live on a houseboat with her Aunt Roxy. There's one catch—she can't get in trouble, or it's back to New Jersey and juvenile detention camp. Too bad that days after arriving at the houseboat community, Frankie is accused of animal cruelty (killing a cat) and has two weeks to prove her innocence. In the process, she gets to know all the eccentrics on the dock. There's Forgetting Michael, a young disabled man who forgets things whenever a loud noise goes off; Alice, an eighty-two-year-old activist who loves birds and hates cats; Margie Britt, a washed-out 70s TV star; and Butch, an exceptional German shepherd who shows affection in unexpected ways. This is the first of three books in the Frankie Jackson mystery series.