Amelia runs away from her father who has custody to begin a new life and identity in San Francisco LIVING IN SECRET with her mother and her mother's girlfriend Janey. Beginning a whole new life isn't easy, but they do get to live in the funky old place Amelia nicknames The Sunshine House. As she grows up however, it becomes necessary for Amelia to take the matter of where she's going to live the rest of her childhood into her own hands. Her dad is a criminal, and criminals are supposed to be in jail, aren't they? Amelia is determined to make a legal place for herself with her chosen family once and for all. Maybe it's high time for a lot of things about America to change.