Olive Abernathy is a silver-tongued tomboy with a mean right hook, a fierce little spirit, and an inability to fit in. Her uncle mistook the Mayor's toupee for a bigfoot pelt. Her Aunt found the baby Jesus in a bowl of cornflakes. Her Mama's holding a paddle in one hand and the world's biggest secret in the other. Olive feels her little Louisiana town closing up around her like a pill bug and she yearns for freedom; she yearns for adventure . . . she yearns to shed the Abernathy surname that everyone in town inexplicably detests and to strike out on her own. But when Olive convinces her besotted best friend Henry, "the world's oldest living 12-year-old" to strike out and ride the rails like a starry-eyed hobo, the big city proves to her that while the grass over there might be greener, the dog in the yard's also meaner. Olive's forced to grow up hard and fast. Olive's forced to feel the same hard touch that her Mama felt. And Olive is forced to realize that great cruelty exists in this world. Maybe it was the little devil sittin' side-saddle on Olive Abernathy's shoulder that turned her into a murderin', hitchhikin', train-hoppin' vagabond at the tender age of thirteen. Or maybe...just maybe...there were a few secrets itchin' to claw their way out of that Louisiana bayou along with her.