In the summer of 1977, 12-year-old Dulcie Louise Dixon arrives on the doorstep of her Aunt Bernie's farmhouse in Shepherdsville, Ohio, with no voice, a spelling bee trophy, a Webster's Dictionary, and a box full of ashes. She tries to adjust to her new situation, although she can't forget the words she left behind or the mother she's lost to suicide. But in this tender novel for readers 9 to 12, Dulcie discovers a secret place: a swan's nest in the woods where at last, her broken world begins to mend. With the help of her new friends—a guitar-playing runaway, a poetry-loving preacher, a one-armed gas station attendant, a singing seamstress, and a family of swans—Dulcie may be able to rise out of her sadness to find her voice once again.