Life is smoothest for thirteen-year-old Ellie when she keeps her opinions to herself, gets good grades and speaks carefully when her parents ask her to settle their arguments. She feels guilty that she welcomes the chance to spend the summer in another city with her mother"s older sister, Jeanette. Ellie makes a new friend and learns to play an Argentine instrument called the bandoneÛn, which she finds in her auntís basement. When she goes searching for the bandoneÛn"s original owner, she discovers a story of political intrigue and family secrets that help her start to figure out where her parents end and she begins.