Jane "Red" Rogers is the daughter of two geologists, so her childhood has been overshadowed by all things having to do with the rock cycle, plate tectonics, and glaciation.

When her mother commits suicide, Red and her father embark on an adventure to restore an old family fishing lodge on an island in the Georgian Bay area of Canada. Along the way, Red must navigate around the submerged hazards resulting from the friendship with a local boy and an Anishinaabe man and his grandson-all the while trying to fit in with the rich teen aged crowd at the local hotel.

With each misadventure Red encounters, her mother's journal continues to teach her how the lessons of geology and glaciation are as applicable to human beings as they are to her beloved rocks and ice.