When Portia sets out for a visit with her cousin Julian, she expects fun and adventure of the usual kind. But, on their first day exploring, they discover an enormous boulder with a mysterious message, a swamp choked with weeds and quicksand, and on the far side of the swamp . . . a ghost town. Once, the swamp was a splendid lake and the fallen houses were a resort community. But though the lake is long gone and the resort faded away, the houses still hold a secret: two people who have never left Gone Away Lake . . . and who can tell the story of what happened there.