Narrator Mibs Beaumont explains that the day her brother Fish turned 13, he acquired his special power, or “savvy,” when he suddenly caused a hurricane at the beach. This forced the Beaumonts to move far inland, to the center of the US, away from oceans, lakes, or rivers.

They settled on a few acres near the Nebraska-Kansas border, far from other people. The land was created when Grandpa Bomba used his savvy to move or stretch land. The family sometimes calls the place “Kansaska” and sometimes “Nebransas” in honor of its two-state location.

Mibs’s Momma does everything perfectly. That’s her savvy. Mibs’s brother Rocket controls electricity: He can zap someone from across the room or keep the lights on during a power outage. Her broody brother Samson, age seven, and her sister, Gypsy, age three, don’t yet have their savvies.

Two days before Mibs’s own 13th birthday, the day when every Beaumont acquires a savvy, Mibs and her siblings learn that their father, Poppa, has been severely injured in a traffic pile-up. He is in a hospital in a coma. Fish, upset, causes a rainstorm to erupt, and Rocket’s electric savvy breaks every lightbulb in the house.