Greg is a porter at the Shepton Hotel in New York. When a girl with beautiful green eyes asks him for help, Greg can't say no. The girl's name is Cassie, and she says she is an artist. She tells Greg that her stepfather has her sketchbooks , and now she wants them back. Cassie also says her stepfather is staying at Greg's hotel... so what could go wrong?
India lives in a large, luxurious house with a mum she can't stand and a dad she adores, though he hasn't had much time for her recently. She seeks solace in her journal, which she keeps in sincere imitation of her heroine, Anne Frank. Treasure lives on the local council estate with her loving and capable grandmother. She is devoted to her nan but lives in fear of having to go back to live with her mother and violent stepfather. A chance meeting sparks a great friendship between the girls. And when Treasure has to run away to avoid her stepfather, India comes up with a hiding place inspired by her favourite author. India hasn't got a real Secret Annexe but she has got a hidden attic . . .
Ten-year-old Lori Jean believes that love can heal Ray, her abusive stepfather whose drunken rages have left Lori Jean and her mother beaten and bruised. Growing up impoverished in rural Georgia in the 1950s, Lori Jean survives abandonment by her biological father, as well as the deaths of her grandmother and her best friend, Carolee. Despite these tragedies, Lori Jean clings tenaciously to faith and hope. When she discovers that her stepfather was the victim of sexual abuse as a child, she struggles to "fix" Ray's problems, but unfortunately, his illness runs too deep.
