Judy is excited about becoming a doctor, especially when Class 3T starts a new unit on the human body, but she learns more about being a patient when she catches tonsillitis from her little brother, Stink.

"Four sisters rely on each other--and a bit of mysterious magic--to cope with their mother's illness"--

While her father is in the hospital, thirteen-year-old Isla befriends Harry, the first boy to understand her love of the outdoors, and as Harry's health fails, Isla tries to help both him and the lone swan they see, struggling to fly, on the lake outside Harry's window.

When seven-year-old Mary's father puts her beloved cat, Thomasina, to sleep, Mary stops speaking to him and becomes gravely ill until Lori, a woman rumored to be a witch, restores Thomasina to health and Thomasina saves Mary.