Kate Kincaid, nicknamed "Bossy Kate" by family and "Peacemaker" by classmates, makes ending the feud between River View and Hastings Bay a personal crusade. The disastrous results of most of her attempts force her to examine her motives and to look at the effects of her actions on the people around her. Kate becomes aware of some cultural differences between the two towns. To River View students college is a given, an Ivy League college at that; her brother is a freshman at Harvard. Hastings Bay students see themselves as getting jobs following high school; college is a remote possibility for most of them. Kate recognizes some of her own snobbery, especially when she realizes her surprise that Hastings Bay citizens are also concerned about the nuclear waste site.

Jon Westgate, Kate's best friend since they were six, is a pacifist, sometimes referred to...