It went without saying that Olive was the most peculiar-looking girl in her class. But what happened to Olive Garnaut was not because she looked ever so slightly like an extraterrestrial, even a very pale one.

Olive is an only child. She lives by the sea in a ramshackle old house with her mother, Mog, who's successful, busy, and hardly ever home. Olive is very quiet and she doesn't quite fit in. But she has a best friend, Mathilda, and that's what matters. And then one day Mathilda decides to be someone else's best friend. Just as life really can't get much worse, Pip shows up. Brash, loud Pip is everything that Olive is not, and she's about to cause Olive a whole heap of trouble - and open her up to a whole new world of possibilities.