When Kaya and her family join with other Nez Perce and Salish Indians to fish for the red salmon, she and her older sister hope to be reunited with their younger sister, who had been kidnapped some time before. Includes historical notes on the summer activities of the Nez Perce Indians.

The second Christmas after their mother has died, Josefina and her three sisters find that participating in the traditions of Las Posadas helps keep memories of Mama alive.

Nine-year-old Josefina, the youngest of four sisters living in New Mexico in 1824, tries to help run the household after her mother dies.

When she discovers that Nellie and her sisters have been sent to an orphanage, Samantha, now living with her aunt and uncle in New York City, tries to help her friends as much as she can.

As the yellow fever epidemic continues to ravage New Orleans and the orphanages become more crowded, Marie-Grace and Cécile help with the orphans, until Marie-Grace learns that her Uncle Luc's fiancée, Mademoiselle Océane, has fallen ill.

In 1904, nine-year-old Samantha, an orphan living with her wealthy grandmother, and her servant friend Nellie have a midnight adventure when they try to find out what has happened to the seamstress who suddenly left her job.

"In her third story, Luciana and her family are headed to Chile for winter break. Luci can't wait to see her cousins - but the reunion doesn't go as planned, and Luci feels like an outsider in her own family. Just then she receives a surprise invite from Claire Jacobs, her frenemy from astronaut training camp, to join her at the Mars habitat in the desert and watch NASA scientists at work. It's an offer too good to refuse, so Luci decides to leave...

In 1825 when Josefina trusts a trader in Santa Fe with an important deal, she makes a surprising discovery about this young American who leaves town without paying her.

Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like Tia Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

Tired of doing chores and longing for adventure during the Great Depression, Kit meets a hobo and decides to hop a freight train.