Seventeen-year-old Laurel Graham has one all-consuming ambition in life: become the most renowned nature photographer and birder in the world.

She just has to win the junior nature photographer contest run by prominent Fauna magazine, just as her beloved activist and nature-loving grandmother did when she was a girl. When Gran drags Laurel out on a birding expedition, the pair hear a mysterious call. They vow to find out what it is, but Gran is involved in a horrible car accident.

With Gran in a coma, Laurel's world is rocked. Her gran's house is being sold, developers plan to destroy the nature sanctuary she treasures, and she still can't identify the mystery bird. Laurel’s confusion isn’t just a group of warblers—it’s about what means the most to her, and what she’s willing to do to fight to save it.