Fifteen-year-old Marlee Burke is devastated when her mother leaves home and doesn't return. She is also worried about the ghost of a young boy who haunts a house on the hill. To make matters worse, her father takes her away from their home in Virginia and the horses she loves to Newport, R.I., a place surrounded by water. Her father's friends, Ted and Nancy, decide that his marriage is over, and encourage him to move on. To avoid them, Marlee climbs out her window at night and finds new friends--Len Wyman, a handsome young piano player who invites her to join him when he performs at a nightclub, and Billy Budd, a lobster fisherman who hires her to harvest lobsters from the sea. Len is at war with an unreasonable boss and, and Mr. Budd is attacked by thugs who keep coming back. These two are who Marlee goes to for help with her daring plan to return to Virginia and find her mother.