Tommy escapes from her rural school bus after bullies pelt her with tomatoes. Alone in the middle of nowhere, she decides to walk all the way home. But the Australian summer day grows dangerously hot. She comes across a tiny, one-room school from another century, which wasn't there before. She decides to spend her day with the unusual kids who attend, and makes a new friend--a ghostly friend, who will come in very handy next time Tommy rides that school bus.