From a dusty trailer park on the far edge of the California dream, Michelina Bellsong sets out on a remarkable quest that will change her forever. She will cross America in a desperate search for nine-year-old Leilani, a disabled but indomitable little girl she has come to love. Leilani has disappeared along with her drug-damaged mother and threatening stepfather, Preston Maddoc, a fanatical investigator of UFO sightings. Maddoc has claimed that by Leilani's tenth birthday, aliens will either heal her or take her away to a better life.

According to Leilani, her older brother, also disabled, has already "gone to the stars." Now, with Leilani's tenth birthday approaching, Micky is convinced the girl will soon be dead if she doesn't find her. Alone and afraid, for the first time living for something bigger than herself, she is pitted against an adversary, Preston Maddoc, as fearsome as he is cunning. Her passion, her courage, draw a burned-out detective to her side. Hundreds of miles away, a motherless boy and a homeless dog begin an even more astonishing journey. Ahead for them all lie incredible peril, startling discoveries, and paths that lead through terrible darkness to unexpected light.