After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

Abby, Emma, and Ollie are squabbling sisters on a punishment hike up a mountain with their camp counselor, Dana, when they suddenly find themselves completely on their own, and spot the smoke of a forest fire above them; in order to survive they need to learn to depend on each other--or the name of the hiking area, No Return Wilderness, may prove to be prophetic.