The Home School Detectives are glad to help members of the Springdale Community Church fix up a run-down apartment project, until Josh's new basketball disappears and Josh is suspected of taking a woman's purse.

When the Home School Detectives respond to an old woman's plea to help her find her dead husband's missing gold watch, they discover some mysterious activities at the nursing home where she lives.

When Carlos and the others don't show up for ice cream, Julie and Emily start looking for them. Soon they find their friends abandoned bicycles and several small computer chips. When a strange man with a red beard show up, wanting to know everything about the chips, the mystery deepens.

While attending Camp Friendly Waters, Rebecca, Julie and Emily discover a cave with ancient Native American tools and weapons but, when they return to explore, the cave seems to have disappeared.