Eight-year-old Tessa Lee and her little brother, Travis, are left behind at a campground by their mother and her boyfriend, a crooked-nosed man named Goose, with little more than the firefly cloak theyd used for covers the night before.

So begins a journey that will take Tessa Lee in search of the mother she longs for. Her quest is steeped in Southern atmosphere and characters: the owner of the cheesy boardwalk show where Tessa Lee finds her mother and loses her again; the bingo-playing grandmother who holds her close; the old man who thinks the CIA is after him and boards up his house. Running throughout, like threads in a cloak, are themes of guilt, loss, and reunion.