"The Keepers of the School--known to their friends as Ben, Jill, and Robert--have one last chance to save their school before it's torn down to make room for a seaside amusement park. But their nemeses, janitors Lyman and Wally, are just as determined to keep the kids out of the way and the demolition on schedule"--

Fifth-grader Nora Rowley has always hidden the fact that she is a genius from everyone because all she wants is to be normal, but when she comes up with a plan to prove that grades are not important, things begin to get out of control.

Sixth-grader Ben Pratt's life is full of changes that he does not like--his parents' separation and the plan to demolish his seaside school to build an amusement park--but when the school janitor gives him a tarnished coin with some old engravings and then dies, Ben is drawn into an effort to keep the school from being destroyed.