Fourteen-year-old Kelly doesn't understand why she has been shipped off to stay with her rigid grandparents in Florida. And why does her mother have to stay up north in the hospital and her grandmother refuses to answer her questions? Walking the hot, sunny Florida beach, Kelly remembers her mother's sad stories about shell ladies. Suddenly she realizes they are more than fairy tales. Is it her fault that her darling mother has had a mental breakdown? And do her mother's needs or her own struggle for independence come first?