Fourteen year olds discovery of artifacts dug up at a highway construction site leads to the solving of a mysterious disappearance of a girl 35 years earlier

The summer of 1952 is a very auspicious year for Frederick Aslop, known to family and friends as Freddy, a twelve-year old living in Golden, Colorado. The thing he looks forward to most is television finally reaching Colorado. However, something more important alters his life-a new friend named Jake, whom Freddy knows for only a few weeks. Jake is a foster child who seems to be living in fear. He is reluctant to talk about his past life in the mountain city of Leadville.

Nothing is more devastating to a parent than the disappearance of a child. This is especially so when he parent is sure that child is not a runaway, meaning he or she was kidnapped. The wondering who and where, and their child's safety is torment in itself. Jess Middleton had one advantage when his girl Annie went missing on a fine summer day. Someone he knew spotted her two days after her disappearance. That sent him on a wild goose chase. He refused to give up, followed up other clues. But what bedeviled him almost as much as Annie's missing was the opposition some who were supposed to help...