Veronica Reid, aged thirteen, is disappointed she has to wear awful new glasses, and is even more disappointed that she has to spend the summer at Laughing Willows Trailer Park with her obnoxious younger brothers and unhappy mother. Lonely and bored, she begins to observe the local crows, even as she gradually finds a community among the odd denizens of Laughing Willows, and when violence erupts, she finds strength both inside herself and in the people--and the crows--around her.