'It didn't matter that we wouldn't know anybody. There were probably only three people to meet anyway. I'd never even heard of Willawa. Had anybody?'
Fran is furious. Her parents have just divorced, her mother has left for who-knows-where, and now she is being forced to move to the quiet coastal town of Willawa with her father and "the creep" - her younger brother.
Willawa is everything Fran feared - and worse. Then, one morning after a ferocious storm, Fran discovers that a dugong has been trapped in the ocean lagoon.
The townspeople of Willawa decide to turn the creature into a tourist attraction to boost business. But Fran sees that the creature is like herself - trapped and alone. Suddenly life takes on new meaning for Fran as she sets herself against the townspeople and fights to set the dugong free.
