How can an Air Force kid survive junior high when her dad's at war, her little sister is deaf, and friends have abandoned her? It's 1967 and Debbie Hansen hates her life. She has to leave all of her New York friends, move to California's Mojave Desert, then back to New York, all because her dad will be sent to Vietnam for a year. And three out of five pilots never come home. Debbie could be fatherless before she starts high school. Her only comfort? She'd have her old friends to lean on if the worst happened. Wrong. When Debbie returns to her hometown, she finds the group moved on without her. She tries to reconnect, but their message is clear-NOT interested. Living under the shadows of war, Debbie and her brothers mask their fears by acting out in anger toward each other until a final showdown erupts into near tragedy. Meanwhile, Mom forbids Debbie to teach Krista sign language. Experts say deaf children need to speak. Debbie defies them. Krista is the only one who's happy. She blossoms in her world without sound. Before Dad returns, if he returns, Debbie needs to choose-she can keep struggling to earn a place with the in crowd, or she can learn to dance with her sister in the silence.