Twelve-year-old Elias is sent to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky to fight a case of consumption and ends up fighting for the lives of a secret community of escaped slaves traveling along the Underground Railroad.

As the partition of India nears in 1947 bringing violence even to Jalandhar, Tariq, a Muslim, finds himself caught between his forbidden interest in Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British girl whose affection for him might help with his dream of studying at Oxford.

In the jungle outside the growing city of Chandigarh, twelve-year-old street child Ram discovers a hidden rock garden, befriends its creator--a factory worked named Nek--and tries to save Nek's garden when it is threatened with destruction.