Nearly seven weeks into the evacuation, Harmony Addams-Paul writes another letter to her Aunt Beckie from the shelter. She reflects on the surreal experience of being quarantined while the rest of the world carries on normally. She has encountered few familiar faces from home, and her mother believes the evacuation was mishandled, scattering people from the same communities into different camps. No one appears ill from the contamination, though obsessive hand-washing has become routine. Harmony has been writing articles in her journal but cannot mail her letters due to a lack of stamps.

Two months into the evacuation, Harmony writes a journalistic article about how young people at Camp Rogers are carving out private spaces in communal housing. Edison “Teddy” Brenkert takes advantage of his elderly roommates’ early bedtimes for solitude. Ashanti Johnson has converted a corner of a medical storeroom near her mother’s infirmary into a reading nook. Harmony herself hangs a bedsheet from the top bunk to create privacy in the room she shares with her mother and younger sister.

Ashanti describes waiting for her mother to finish closing the infirmary for the evening. Once her mother is settled, Ashanti secretly puts on the white coat and stethoscope and sits across from an imaginary patient, practicing the role of a doctor.

In his Film Production Diary, Teddy writes that he has been shooting extensive footage but cannot edit without his computer. He finds that interview subjects open up quickly, often sharing conspiracy theories. He notes that Gram has calmed down since speaking with Dr. Johnson and is beginning to show enthusiasm for organizing a theatrical production, believing that making art relieves stress.

Grandin describes Camp Rogers as a fully enclosed facility with fenced perimeters, guarded gates, and the nearest town more than 80 miles away. He compares his restlessness to that of a trapped animal and quietly wonders whether there might be a way to slip out of camp.

A new official advisory from Incident Command reports that some evacuation camps are seeing unusual health cases with symptoms including nausea, vertigo, and sensory disturbances. The cause is not yet known, and all evacuees will remain in quarantine while the situation is investigated.

Ashanti wrestles with anxiety after the health-incident report, despite her mother’s reassurances. She wonders whether they could be contaminated without showing symptoms, comparing their helpless waiting to that of Odysseus’s men in Homer’s Odyssey, who were poisoned by Circe’s magic and left to rely on outside intervention for survival.

On the quad, Teddy and Harmony review interview footage while Pax plays nearby. Harmony voices concern about the reports of illness in other camps; Teddy relays that their camp has not been affected. When Teddy decides the documentary needs B-roll footage from around the base, Pax threatens to report them to their mother unless she is included. Teddy solves the standoff by giving Pax the role of “producer” in exchange for her Goldfish crackers. The three follow a painted yellow line deeper into camp until the buildings become increasingly dilapidated, pressing on despite Teddy’s unease about being out of bounds.

Grandin describes exploring the camp’s forgotten edges, where he discovers a Labrador nursing a litter of seven puppies in a makeshift nest of rags behind an old hut.

Teddy, Harmony, and Pax come across a long, arched green hut with boarded windows and padlocked doors that Pax dubs the Emerald City. While Harmony and Teddy debate whether journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—famous for breaking the Watergate scandal during the Richard Nixon administration—qualify as muckrakers, they realize Pax has wandered off. A squeal from behind the hut brings them running, where they find Pax sitting with Grandin and a lapful of puppies. Harmony, having feared Pax was in danger, confronts Grandin sharply before catching herself and apologizing. Grandin, whose uncle breeds Labradors, explains that he followed the sound of squeaking pups and estimates the litter is about two weeks old. Harmony offers to help smuggle food for the dogs. Teddy then notices that one puppy is unusually limp; Grandin identifies the condition as fading puppy syndrome and explains that the smallest pup is likely being pushed away from its mother. Teddy suggests consulting Ashanti’s mother, and Pax immediately bolts toward the DAC to get help.

In a verse poem, Ashanti describes Dr. Johnson examining the sick puppy right in the hallway after the children arrive with it. The doctor diagnoses the puppy with failure to thrive, administers fluids, and prescribes warmth and continuous care, cautioning them not to expect too much. Grandin holds the puppy close and quietly promises that it will survive.

Grandin sits on the DAC steps with the puppy nestled in a shoebox while Ashanti reviews care instructions with him—dropper feedings every two to three hours, sterilized between uses, no missed feedings. As the puppy falls asleep in Grandin’s hand, Harmony asks Grandin’s name, and he introduces himself. Pax promptly introduces the rest of the group and asks Grandin whether he ever plays Wizard of Oz.

Grandin reflects on the daily routine of bringing solid food to the nearly weaned puppies. He notes that the puppies are almost independent but still reliant, just as the evacuees line up every day in the mess hall, dependent on others and never quite weaned from the camp.

Harmony writes to Aunt Beckie that the mother dog has wandered off now that her puppies no longer need her, and the runt is growing stronger. The children have found homes for the rest of the litter throughout camp, even placing one with a guardsman. Harmony connects the mother dog’s departure to her own father’s absence, wondering bitterly whether he too decided his children were old enough to be on their own.

The group watches Grandin play with the rescued puppy on the quad. In an unusual burst of words, the typically laconic Grandin announces that he is keeping the dog and plans to hunt and camp with him on his family’s ranch once the quarantine ends. When Pax demands that the puppy be named Toto, Grandin declines and names the dog Popcorn—then demonstrates why by having Pax smell the puppy’s paw pads, which carry the scent of buttered popcorn.

Grandin recalls the purposeful, hands-on life he shared with his father on the ranch, where there were always animals to tend and tasks to complete. In camp, his hands feel empty and purposeless. Popcorn nipping at his jeans and then falling asleep on his boot offers a small but meaningful sense of connection.

Five months after statewide evacuations, the Colorado governor’s office has established the Council for Displaced Coloradans to advise on issues affecting evacuees quarantined in relocation shelters. The council’s immediate priorities include providing adequate housing, supplies, and temporary schools for displaced children. However, the council cannot comment on individual properties or the status of contamination zones, referring all such inquiries to Incident Command.

Harmony writes to Aunt Beckie about the launch of “Temp School.” Teddy dismisses traditional schooling as suffocating to creative thinking. Harmony is genuinely enthusiastic: School will occupy Pax, provide tablets for writing, and may include a journalism class. She wishes Mr. Sedillo could teach the class and wonders where he is.

Grandin interprets the decision to open schools as a signal from authorities that the evacuation will last a very long time.

In a verse poem, Ashanti relays her mother’s view that school will provide healthy structure to the endless, shapeless days in camp. For her own part, Ashanti is relieved not to fall behind academically, as she is fully committed to medical school and demands the most rigorous education available.

On the first day of Temp School, the children and teens crowd into a large auditorium. Teddy immediately objects to being sorted by grade level. Harmony is focused on the tablets, which she plans to use to launch a self-published zine, and tries with limited success to get Teddy excited about editing his documentary. The chaotic, overcrowded auditorium overwhelms Teddy, who mutters that he would rather take his chances in the contamination zones.

In his Film Production Diary, Teddy writes that he cannot function in conventional school and plans to have Gram write him an exemption note. This frustration leads him to brainstorm how film can depict claustrophobia, listing visual metaphors such as trapped animals, packed elevators, and crowded shelters. The entry includes a hand-drawn storyboard.

Ashanti misses her swim team with a physical intensity that goes beyond nostalgia—she feels the absence in her muscles. She notes the irony that the dry prairie surrounding the camp stretches out like an ocean, yet the nearest swimming pool is over a hundred miles away.

After school, Grandin picks up keys dropped by an elderly man whose low, deep voice reminds him of his father and brings him to unexpected tears. The man—Ramón, a driver for Incident Command officials—keeps talking to give Grandin time to recover, and Grandin finds himself opening up about his fears, his father, and the puppy. Ramón’s advice is to choose hope over worry.

Harmony writes to her aunt that the promised tablets failed to work and have been replaced by stapled worksheets, which are so remedial that the students learn nothing. Via Grandin, Harmony has learned from Ramón that the school’s principal has already quit. Ashanti, whose academic ambitions far exceed what the camp’s teachers can offer, is nearing her limit of patience.

Ashanti complains that her biology teacher is a former school counselor with no biology background—someone who confused anaerobic respiration with a type of physical exercise and could not identify basic cell structures. The teacher has said that facts matter less than feelings, leading Ashanti to remark privately that she feels like punching the teacher.

At the six-month mark, Harmony publishes a community article reporting on new activities at Camp Rogers as winter sets in. Her mother, Pastor Addams, and Rabbi Lerner have formed an interdenominational committee to coordinate holiday planning. Gram is holding auditions for a community theater production. Dr. Johnson is offering wellness classes for all ages. Harmony also reflects that she never expected to turn 13 in donated clothing while living in quarantine.

In his diary, Teddy reports that Gram’s holiday musical was hampered by a failing sound system and a heating outage at intermission, but still provided useful footage and seemed to lift people’s spirits. He ends on a note of relief that school is suspended until after New Year’s.

In a verse poem, Grandin describes New Year’s Eve at camp, where even his mother briefly joins in the celebration with a midnight toast. Almost immediately afterward, both are overcome with guilt at having momentarily forgotten their worries. Grandin resolves to start the new year by keeping his father’s memory actively present in his mind.

Writing to Aunt Beckie on St. Patrick’s Day, Harmony reflects on how quarantine has compressed their world, with people now measuring time in months rather than days. The formation of a garden committee unsettles her—who will harvest the produce if they go home? Her mother responds with a story about a run-down farm where a pot of vibrant geraniums showed that someone still found a reason to tend something beautiful. Harmony hears the lesson but worries that focusing too much on camp means losing sight of home.

Eleven months into the evacuation, an official advisory announces that the toxic contamination has spread, enlarging the uninhabitable zones. General Giles is activating additional troops to secure the perimeters, all remaining mountain routes have been closed, and the condition is now being called Contamination Syndrome.

In a verse poem, Ashanti observes that every official press update drives a new wave of patients to the infirmary with stress-related symptoms: stomachaches, sleeplessness, and hives. She echoes her mother’s belief that mental distress often manifests physically, and that sometimes the most effective treatment is simply a kind word and the reassurance that what they’re feeling is a normal response to an abnormal situation.

While doing schoolwork on the quad with Popcorn sleeping at Grandin’s feet, Harmony asks the group whether everyone seems to be growing too comfortable with the status quo. Ashanti compares the situation to the Lotus Eaters in The Odyssey—people lulled into passivity who forgot their homes and their purpose. Pax connects this to the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and her companions fall asleep in a poppy field. Harmony stares off into the distance, visibly forming an idea.

Harmony writes to her aunt that a small idea took shape after the Lotus Eaters conversation. Pax suggested using the old green hut—which she still calls the Emerald City—as their base. Unable to bring himself to damage military property, Grandin declined to force the lock, so the group removed a board from a back window and crawled inside. They found a disused office filled with usable resources: maps, encyclopedias, wooden desks, stationery, manual typewriters, and a copy machine.

Gathered in the Emerald City, Harmony makes Pax swear to keep the location secret, then announces the group’s new mission: to be muckrakers—investigative journalists who expose wrongdoing and corruption. Her goal is to report truthfully on the contamination in the hope that uncovering its cause might accelerate the cleanup and get them home. When everyone agrees they want to return, Harmony declares that the truth will set them free. Ashanti quips that clicking their heels together would be simpler.

Harmony writes to her aunt that she is reviewing and revising her stockpiled articles for the first issue, drawing on official press releases and photos that Ramón has provided. She plans to start with accessible content and build a readership before pursuing bigger investigative stories. Learning to use the typewriter is slow and frustrating, and she admits her fear of making an error.

At the 12-month mark, the inaugural edition of the Camp Rogers Gazette appears, bearing the motto “As Powerful as the People Who Read It.” Harmony’s lead article covers Governor Clark’s declaration of Evacuee Appreciation Day to mark the one-year anniversary of Operation Relocate Freedom, quoting the governor’s acknowledgment of evacuees’ patience and promising celebrations including food, music, and activities for children.

The kids celebrate the Gazette’s first issue with a party in the Emerald City. Harmony toasts to the paper and expresses hope that this will be the last anniversary they spend in evacuation. Pax then launches a game she calls “Glinda’s Crystal Ball,” using an old glass coffeepot: Each player must stare into the pot for 15 seconds and share a personal truth. Pax goes first, delivering a theatrical prophecy about their intertwined fates and the need to face their fears—drawn from The Wizard of Oz, which she has apparently read many times.

For her turn in the crystal ball game, Ashanti shares in verse that her ambitions are unchanging: to become a doctor who heals people and cures disease, and to become an authority on the workings of the human body.

When it is Teddy’s turn, he reveals that his parents died in a car accident when he was an infant and that Gram raised him. He then admits that he feels an urgency to make a feature film before he turns 30. The group is puzzled by the specific age until Grandin quietly asks whether Teddy’s parents were thirty when they died. Teddy neither confirms nor denies it and changes the subject.

Harmony writes to her aunt that she did not need 15 seconds to know her truth: She wants to become the greatest journalist of the 21st century. Beneath that ambition is a more personal hope that her success might make both parents proud and perhaps even bring them back together.

When Harmony’s words about her father’s departure surface in conversation, Pax becomes upset and insists their father is only taking a break and will return, suggesting he may simply be unable to find them because of the evacuation. Harmony holds Pax firmly and confronts her with the facts: Their father packed his belongings, loaded his truck, and drove away nearly two years ago. Pax rejects this, pulls free, and abruptly shifts the game to Grandin’s turn.

In a verse poem, Grandin takes his turn with quiet honesty: the ambitions he once held—to serve his country, heal the world, and ranch alongside his father—feel distant. His only wish now is for the ordeal of evacuation to end.