At thirteen, bookish Veronica Reid lives in a world inside her head, even if she isn't entirely successful at resisting the intrusions of the world outside. It's bad enough that she has to wear awful new glasses; it's downright disastrous that she'll have to spend the summer at Laughing Willows Trailer Park with her obnoxious younger brothers and unhappy mother. She can't imagine anything worse. Lonely and bored, she begins to observe the activities of the local crows, even as she gradually finds a community among the odd denizens of Laughing Willows, makes a friend in seventeen-year-old Charlotte, and falls in love. When she is sexually assaulted, she finds unexpected strength both inside herself and in the people--and the crows--around her.