In their last year of high school, six best friends prepare to leave their small, struggling hometown, a place caught in the slow, fine-grinding wheels of American big business that seem to leave no side doors. Maisie, whose father is about to be released from prison, decides she can't leave the town where she has been embraced so lovingly since the dark day when her father nearly killed the man whose company foreclosed on their family farm. The town's patriarch, Gil Denton, a no nonsense, wealthy landowner dying from cancer, loves these six kids, and in his remaining time with them he serves as a sounding board, dependable guide, and sympathetic friend--while providing them a wistful link to a past they will never know. Set in current time, the story shows that small town values are worth saving and that the mouse does indeed occasionally roar.