Sometimes things are not always what they seem, especially in the small suburban town where the Carpenter family lives. Single suburban mother Susan Carpenter works as a waitress at a diner, alongside feisty family friend Sheila. Her younger son Peter is a playful 8-year-old. Taking care of everyone and everything in his own unique way is Susan's older son Henry, age 11. Protector to his adoring younger brother and tireless supporter of his often self-doubting mother - and, through investments, of the family as a whole - Henry blazes through the days like a comet. Susan discovers that the family next door, which includes Henry's kind classmate Christina, has a dangerous secret - and that Henry has devised a surprising plan to help. As his brainstormed rescue plan for Christina takes shape in thrilling ways, Susan finds herself at the center of it.

In the Autumn of 1960, a fluke atmospheric weather condition allows a young teenager, Parry Tender, to receive a radio broadcast from New York City. Nestled in the Northern town of Goose Lake, Saskatchewan, Parry believes the contest the New York radio D.J. is running may be his ticket out of town, and away from a life to which he feels he never belonged. When Debbie Baxter, a young girl from California, arrives in the town by way of her father's position with the military, Parry soon discovers love, loss, and the magic of rock and roll.