Sami Lightfoot is not so thrilled about her life in Paradise, Arizona. To begin with, there is the sixth grade, which is, well, school. Then there is the fact that the world is running out of fresh water, making everything drab, difficult, and scary. Worst of all is that her astrophysicist father has disappeared. Without a trace. So now it’s just Sami and her over-worked mother, and a big hole in her humdrum world.

Then an alien boy named Brian—one of fifty-seven refugees from the (supposedly) doomed planet of Adonae—is plopped down in the seat beside her at school. And everything changes.

Brian may be an alien, but he is soon the only friend Sami’s got.

When the fear-mongering business tycoon, Todd Rover, blames the country’s problems on the aliens, the government orders them rounded up. But Sami and her frenemy, Alejandro, are definitely not going to let that happen to Brian. They spirit him away. But that is not enough, of course. They need to get him back to the safety of his home planet.

Outsmarting police, parents, and a relentless and dangerous goon named Mr. Sombra, is one thing. But finding a way to transport Brian back to his home planet is something else. A big something else.

All of this would be quite enough adventure for anyone. But, as it turns out, it is only the beginning for Sami.