Middle schooler Justin Riggs struggles to cope with major family problems, including a brother who might be heading for the Persian Gulf, but finds an escape in piano lessons and the dream of a romance with a popular girl.

Thirteen-year-old Socko and his mother leave their cramped, unsafe inner city apartment and move to a house in a new suburban development where they plan to care for Socko's crotchety great-grandfather, but when they arrive they discover that the rest of the homes are unfinished, they are the only residents of Moon Ridge Estates, and that trouble has followed them.