A seed from a mangrove tree floats on the sea until it comes to rest on the shore of a faraway lagoon where, over time, it becomes a mangrove island that shelters many birds and animals, even during a hurricane.

Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn, ancient Sugar Man, and his raccoon-brother Swamp Scouts Bingo and J'miah try to save Bayou Tourterelle from feral pigs Clydine and Buzzie, greedy Sunny Boy Beaucoup, and world-class alligator wrestler and would-be land developer Jaeger Stitch.

While Catfish Kate and her friends are making sweet swamp music, Skink and his Skunktail boys are trying to read and they demand that the girls be quiet, but Kate finds a clever compromise.

"Copper Inskeep holds Windydown Vale's deepest and darkest secret: he is the ghoul that haunts the Vale, donning a gruesome costume to scare travelers and townsfolk away from the dangers of the surrounding swamps. When a terrified girl claims she and her father were attacked by a creature--one that could not have been Copper--it threatens not just Copper's secret, but the fate of all Windydown"--