Twelve-year-old Barb Coutts is watching her life fall apart; her father has walked out, leaving Barb and her mother to cope on their own. Barb and her mother move to an apartment in a poorer neighborhood. The new home is all the way across town, and Barb friends are left behind. Life looks pretty bleak until one day Barb stumbles upon a hidden paradise--her refuge. She also finds a friend to share it with. But on the day Barb needs her refuge the most, she discovers that it does not belong to her alone.