Three kids' quest for hidden silver in an abandoned house pits them against long-forgotten ghosts with their own agenda and the house's dark memories of racism and betrayal. The quest for the silver is especially nerve-racking for Annie, the kid who actually sees the ghosts, both of her deceased mother and of the bygone denizens of the house. Her friends want to believe her but can't, and she herself is torn between running away from it all and following the ghosts into the house's dark history. With the help of some mysterious old characters on the block, the kids restore order to the community and lay bare the bones of what makes a neighborhood: the ability to work together while accepting some differences as absolute, maintaining an organic connection to the communal past, and having some kind of unity of purpose for the kids and the old people of the neighborhood.