Life in seventh grade was just starting to settle down for Sam Hall. But with the death of his Grandma Rose and the arrival of an injured stray dog on his family's farm, all of a sudden he has a lot more to deal with than just TJ, the kid who makes fun of him at school.
Sam is sure he can meet all of his parents' conditions for keeping Grimly (Grim for short)--including working at the vet clinic, even though that can get pretty gross. But he still has one big worry: What if someone claims her as lost?
As the skies and leaves of southern Minnesota change around Sam and Grim through the fall of 1965, discoveries in the woods near the river and his grandmother's journals begin to make one thing seem clear:
The shack just might be the key to everything.