Katelyn and Matthew, who live in the city, are visiting their grandparents on the West Coast. During a camping trip, the two children lose their way on the beach. They meet a little girl who offers to help, and takes Katelyn and Matthew home with her. Selena and her parents are squatters, living in a makeshift dwelling of huge hollow tree stumps and driftwood. They make their living selling driftwood carvings and subsist mostly on nature's bounty from the ocean and their garden. The city children become aware of a lifestyle and environment very different from their own.