It"s the hurricane season of 1954, and tropical storms are raging. For Genevieve, other storms are also brewing. In the conservative beach town of Easton, North Carolina, the Wompers, a new family, are making waves with their outspoken opinions. Easton High School even becomes the center of local attention when the Wompers petition the school to teach about the dangers of atomic testing. Genevieve now needs to figure out where she stands and then decide how far she is willing to go to support her own beliefs. Set against the background of the cold war, Senator McCarthy"s anticommunist crusade, and one of the most active hurricane seasons on record, this historical novel portrays a community battling nature and social change through the eyes of an unusually observant young woman.