Sara Godfrey is a fourteen-year-old who feels awkward, ugly, and unattractive because she has large feet, skinny legs, and a crooked nose. Her moods shift unpredictably: one minute she is "up" about something, the next she is "down" about the same situation. Her ten-year-old brother, Charlie, who has been brain-damaged and mute since the age of three, is loved by everyone in the community. Wanda, their older sister, spends much of her time with her boyfriend, Frank. Sara idolizes, but does not envy, her beautiful older sister.

The children's mother is dead, and their father stays away as much as possible— even when he knows Charlie is lost— possibly because he cannot accept the reality of a mentally retarded child.

Sara learns much about herself, her friends, and her acquaintances when Charlie becomes lost while searching for swans. Her friend Mary turns out to...