A letter from Robin Brogan's Uncle Charley might be just what the doctor ordered as Robin, his best friend, Dan, and his young neighbor, Sun Dance, are recovering from the chicken pox. The letter moves Robin's mother to recall the summer in her childhood when she first met Charley and his older brother, Nick, and Robin and his friends are captivated by her memories. It was a summer of beach combing and sea cave hideouts, and a summer of mystery and danger, too, when the three friends met young Harriet, a boastful, strong-willed girl whose life nonetheless seemed defined by loose ends and sadness. Events from the past begin to take shape in the present when sensitive Sun Dance, recovered from chicken pox but haunted by nightmares, meets a strange young girl on the beach, and Robin and Dan make plans to build a sea raft, unaware that a similar raft led to a childhood tragedy in his mother's past. Warm, lively, distinctive characters in the present and the past distinguish Hilary McKay's gentle, comforting ghost story that features the same delightful families first introduced in Dog Friday (Margaret K. McElderry, 1995).

It's December, and Robin, his friend Dan, and Sun Dance are laid low with chickenpox. To keep them amused, Robin's mother entertains them with memories of the summer when she was eleven and Nick and Charley stayed at her house. When they met Harriet, a strange, shabbily dressed girl who seemed full of surprises and magic, but remained a mystery, until Sun Dance solves the riddle with a small amber cat . . .