Eleven-year-old Rigel Harman loves her life in the Alaskan wilderness where she hunts and takes correspondence classes without electricity or running water. But when her parents divorce, she and her sisters have to move with their mother to the Connecticut suburbs. Rigel clings to the secret pact she made with her father--he promises to bring her home to Alaska where she belongs, if she can stick it out in Connecticut for one year. Unfortunately, this challenge isn't as easy as it sounds, especially figuring out the ups-and-downs of middle school. Rigel's loneliness finally lessens when she forges an unlikely friendship with a crow who needs her help. Yet when that friendship is threatened, Rigel realizes that she may need to let go of her old life to make her own true place in the world--even if, for the time being, that place is Connecticut.