Just when twelve-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers.
When Rebecca helps her injured neighbor, Mr. Rossi, by caring for his pigeons, she discovers a strange black pigeon with an eerie message warning Mr. Rossi of danger, and consults a fortune teller to learn if she is in danger, as well.