In the spring of his fifth-grade year, Ted Hammond, who enjoys a good mystery, is hard at work on a significant one. If there are only five students, how can his school in the tiny hamlet of Plattsford remain open the following year? Everyone here in western Nebraska's Great Plains region is aware that losing the school means losing the community. Yet, the mystery that now has Ted's undivided focus is regarding that face, the person he sees in the Andersons' house's upper window as he rides by on his daily route. The Anderson family left their old farmhouse two years ago, and it is now vacant and tightly boarded up. It's meant to be, at least. a failing institution in a dying town. A face in the window of an empty house. At first these facts don't seem to be related. But Ted Hammond learns that in a very small town, there's no such thing as an isolated event. And the solution of one mystery is often the beginning of another.