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

"The WellieWishers are putting on a show, and Emerson is in charge. The girls love her songs and silly skits, but not all of Emerson's creative ideas are working. Ashlyn can't see out of her pumpkin costume, Willa has a touch of stage fright, and Kendall is struggling with the special effects. When the girls try to tell her their problems, Emerson doesn't listen. Will the show go on?"--Back cover.

Christmas in Williamsburg means a dancing party at the Governor's Palace for Felicity, but her mother becomes very ill and cannot finish the special blue gown.

In 1932, Kit faces a very different Christmas because of her family's financial problems and allows her pride to estrange her from her best friend.

A tough Minnesota winter brings many changes to Kirsten's frontier life, including the new responsibility of helping her brother Lars set his traps and a move into a new house for her family.

Samantha is determined to help nine-year-old Nellie, attending school for the first time, with her school work and learns a great deal herself about what it is like to be a poor child and work in a factory.

In Williamsburg in 1774, nine-year-old Felicity rescues a beautiful horse who is being beaten and starved by her cruel owner.

Marie-Grace Gardner, a doctor's daughter who has just returned to her native New Orleans in 1853, makes friends with Cécile Rey, whose prosperous family are free people of color, and is persuaded to change places with her at separate Mardi Gras balls.

Josefina and her sisters distrust learning to read and write, as well as other changes their Tía Dolores is bringing to the household, because they fear they will lose their memories of their mother.

During a visit to her grandfather's plantation in Virginia during the summer of 1775, Felicity's loyalty is torn between her father and Ben, her father's apprentice who needs her help as he runs away to join George Washington's army of Patriots.