Three unlikely conspirators-an eleven-year-old girl, a retired government investigator, and an activist teacher--work together to block the privatization of a local spring for profit--by initiating action to prevent an out-of-town investor from establishing a water bottling plant.

Their collaboration, within the contexts of community organizing and a natural disaster, leads to meaningful transformation for each of them. How they come to trust and depend upon each other provides a wellspring for wider, and riskier, actions. Their exchanges, in the contexts of community organizing and a...