"Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as San Nicolas Island. Blue dolphins splash in the water surrounding it, sea otters play in the kelp beds, and seabirds roost in its crags. Once, Indians also lived on the island--until one day they decided to leave and sailed to the east. A young girl was left behind. Karana is that girl. Year after year, she waits for the ship to come back. But it never does. Finally, she realizes she must...

"Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce newchildren, who are assigned to appropriate family units: one male, one female, to each. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. The community is a precisely choreographed world without conflict, inequality, divorce, unemployment, injustice--or choice. Everyone is the same. Except Jonas. At the Ceremony...

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.