When a winter flood in Fresno closes school temporarily, Andi gets herself ready for a two-monthholiday riding the range on her palomino mare, Taffy. Andi is outraged when, instead, she's sent tolive with a spinster aunt in San Francisco, doomed to finish the winter term of school at Miss Whitaker'sAcademy for Young Ladies.Miss Whitaker's Academy is exactly what Andi expects it to be: boring. That is, until she meets hernew roommate, the equally untamable Jenny, and makes the acquaintance of the timid but tenderheartedLin Mei, a young girl who works at the school. In San Francisco, Andi finds herself exposed to a whole newworld. Soon Andi discovers a disturbing secret about Lin Mei's uncle, Feng Chee, and these three newfriends find themselves in more trouble than they can handle.