"Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It's tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt's house is okay, it just isn't the same as being in her own space. So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she'll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help...

Three Irish immigrant children, orphaned in a tenement fire, are sent on the orphan train to Missouri where they are adopted by different families, and although Maelle had vowed to one day reunite with her younger brother and sister, seventeen years later she is about to give up hope.