In a town in England, Jennifer is about to turn thirteen and is suffering more than the usual teenage confusion. Her parents are unfashionably strange and she has no real friends, so she lives in her imagination, seeking escape in Alice in Wonderland and in her daydreams of digging her way through the world to come out on the other side. But mostly she dreams of acceptance; to be popular and normal. Then Jennifer learns that her supposed parents are really her grandparents, that her mother deserted her years ago, and worse, that her real birthday is much later in the year. So when Bronwyn, the new girl at school, and the sinister Johnny crash into her life, adventures with them, no matter how dangerous, seem immediately more attractive.