It's the summer of 1993. After the death of their parents at the hands of a drunk driver, city-dwelling teenage brothers Christopher and James Janes are sent to live with their widowed grandfather in the remote Ozarks of Missouri. There, the brothers must learn to cope with the drastic turn their lives have taken and the unfamiliarity of their surroundings, as well as their grief. By some stroke of fate, there is one other person their age in the area: a girl named Kylie. She tells the brothers of a local mystery about a girl who disappeared one day in a nearby ancient cave used by Native Americans, and the three spend their summer together exploring it, eventually finding that there is still a bit of magic left in a world that seems bereaved of hope.