The only thing bigger than the world is fear. Lucy’s life by the pond has been full of laughter and friendship. Her adoptive mother, Lynn, made sure it was different than her own childhood. And it seems always Lucy’s future has been planned—a man, a home, a well, and eventually children. It might be enough, a good life, but Lucy knows so little about the world beyond the pond. Then disease strikes. Fast-moving and dangerous, polio ravages the community, and no one is sure who might be the carrier. It could be Carter, Lucy’s closest friend, whose sister was the first to die. But it could be Lucy, too, yet to show signs of sickness. Desperate to protect Lucy, Lynn takes her away from everything—and everyone—she knows and loves. Lynn remembers stories about California and rumored desalinization plants, where water might not be so rare, where life might be “normal”. And so the two of them set out on an epic journey west, facing new fears that were unknown by the pond: hunger, mountains, the desert’s heat, strangers’ betrayal. Although there are exciting prospects on this western journey: new landscapes, a bigger picture of the world Lucy has so little memory of, even communit...