Dallas and Florida live at Boxton Creek Home under the Trepids' cruel rules, labeled as trouble and dreaming of escape.

An elderly couple named Tiller and Sairy Morey visit Boxton Creek Home and offer to take the twins on separate summer trips.

The Moreys bring Dallas and Florida to Ruby Holler, where the twins receive soft beds and good food for the first time.

Tiller and Sairy explain the understone funds — separate stashes of money they have buried in hidden spots around the property.

Dallas mentions the existence of the Moreys' understone funds to Mr. Trepid during a routine check-in visit.

Mr. Trepid hires a man known only as Z to scout Ruby Holler and map the locations of the buried money.

The twins sneak out at night with sleeping bags to board a freight train but quickly become lost in the dark holler.

The Moreys discover the twins sleeping outside and pretend to believe the twins were simply testing their travel gear.

Florida and Tiller's boat hits a rock and capsizes, throwing both of them into the fast-moving river current.

Florida pulls herself to the bank and then drags an unconscious Tiller ashore using rope from the overturned boat.

Tiller is rushed to the hospital, where the group learns he has suffered a heart attack.

Sairy, Z, Florida, and Dallas bury fake gems and unpleasant items at the mapped sites to set a trap for Mr. Trepid.

Mr. Trepid digs through the decoy holes at Ruby Holler and takes the fake jewels, convinced he has found real treasure.

Two of the Morey children, Lucy and Buddy, arrive and try to persuade their parents to return the twins to Boxton Creek Home.

The twins wake to the smell of cooking bacon the morning after their second escape attempt and silently choose to stay.

Dallas and Florida are orphaned twins trapped in a cruel children's home until an elderly couple named Tiller and Sairy Morey invite them to Ruby Holler for the summer. The twins grow suspicious when the Moreys treat them with unexpected kindness, and their trust is tested when the corrupt Trepids plot to steal the Moreys' hidden savings. After a dangerous river accident capsizes the boat, Florida heroically rescues an unconscious Tiller, who is then hospitalized with a heart attack. Together, the four friends outwit Mr. Trepid with a trap of fake jewels and unpleasant surprises buried at decoy sites. When the Moreys' own children push for the twins' return to Boxton Creek Home, Dallas and Florida face one final decision about whether to run or stay. The story ends with the twins choosing Ruby Holler as their true home.

The headline events driving Dallas, Florida, and the Moreys from first meeting to final choice.

Florida is punished for waving at a new resident, and the twins secretly steal food and hide it in their room.

Florida and Dallas debate overnight whether to accept the Moreys' offer or stick to their plan to escape by train.

Tiller quietly considers whether the twins should be returned to Boxton Creek Home during their first days in Ruby Holler.

Florida accidentally breaks a bird's egg she finds outdoors, triggering a painful memory of being struck for the same mistake as a toddler.

Tiller shows Florida the damaged boat and offers her five dollars an hour to help with the repairs.

The twins cautiously handle the Moreys' wooden bird and boat carvings and are not punished when pieces break by accident.

Tiller and Sairy teach Dallas and Florida to whittle figures from pieces of wood for the first time.

Dallas and Florida cut down Tiller's prized maple tree and knock a hole in the barn wall to let in more light.

Florida secretly sits in the Moreys' old rocking chair while believing no one is watching her.

Mr. Trepid recalls a boy named Joey who died of fever in the Home's care while Dallas watched over him.

Sairy visits Boxton Creek Home to collect Dallas's passport, and Mrs. Trepid demands an excessive sum of money in return.

Sairy and Dallas become lost on their practice hike after Dallas forgets to pack the compass and water canteen.

Z locates Sairy's buried money box on the Morey property and removes it for safekeeping before Mr. Trepid can find it.

Mrs. Trepid recalls the night a woman left infant Dallas and Florida in a box on the Home's doorstep.

Mr. Trepid brings his fake gems to a jewelry store for appraisal, and the salesclerk laughs at them after he leaves.

From the daily punishments at Boxton Creek Home to the small surprises of life in Ruby Holler, this pool captures the scenes that reveal how deeply the twins have been wounded and how slowly they begin to heal. The Moreys' patient kindness — teaching the twins to whittle, letting accidents go unpunished, and working side by side to prepare for their trips — gradually dismantles the twins' defenses. Beneath the surface, darker threads emerge: Mr. Trepid's haunted memory of a boy who died in his care, and the secret history of how the infant twins first arrived at Boxton Creek Home. As the Moreys and Trepids work behind the scenes in opposite directions, Z quietly moves the Moreys' hidden money to safety before Trepid can reach it. The pool closes with the Trepids' greed exposed and humiliated at a jeweler's counter.

The quieter moments and hidden details that shape the twins' journey from distrust to belonging.

Dallas and Florida secretly decide at Boxton Creek Home that escaping by freight train one night will be their only way out.

Florida warns Dallas not to grow comfortable in Ruby Holler, certain the Moreys must have a hidden motive for their kindness.

Tiller tells Florida a story of a childhood mistake his father chose not to punish, leaving Florida stunned by the absence of cruelty.

Sairy notices that the date on Dallas's passport does not match the birthday the twins believe is theirs.

Dallas and Florida secretly follow the Moreys out of the cottage to try to discover where the understone funds are buried.

Tiller admits to Sairy that he regrets telling the twins about the understone funds, fearing it may tempt them.

Mr. Trepid returns to Boxton Creek Home after meeting Z and tells Mrs. Trepid they will soon obtain a large sum of money.

The twins agree to go through with the separate trips but quietly plan to escape by train when they return.

Florida tells Tiller how she and Dallas received their names from travel brochures found in the box they were left in as babies.

Dallas senses something is terribly wrong with Florida and convinces Sairy they must immediately set out to find her and Tiller.

Z confesses to Sairy and Dallas that he intentionally misled Mr. Trepid and has been protecting the Moreys' buried money all along.

While forging a birth certificate for Dallas, Z searches hospital records and realizes his former wife may be the twins' biological mother.

Tiller returns home from the hospital, and Sairy quietly asks him to think of ways they might be able to keep the twins.

After overhearing the Morey children's argument, Dallas packs his bag and convinces Florida it is time to attempt another train escape.

Florida begins having second thoughts on the walk to the train, and both twins dream peacefully of birds while camping in the holler.

This pool traces the pivotal moments that change the course of events: from the twins' early decision to escape by train, to Florida's guarded suspicion of the Moreys' kindness, to the small revelations that begin to crack her armor. Discoveries accumulate — a mismatched passport date, the story of the twins' unusual names, and Z's shocking realization that his former wife may be their biological mother — layering mystery around the twins' origins. Crucial decisions reshape the journey: the twins' quiet agreement to eventually run away, Dallas's powerful premonition that Florida is in danger, and Z's choice to betray Mr. Trepid's scheme and protect the Moreys. By the time Tiller recovers from his heart attack and Sairy begins hoping to keep the twins permanently, the emotional bonds formed in Ruby Holler have become undeniable. A second escape attempt dissolves under the weight of peaceful dreams and second thoughts, leaving the twins at the crossroads they must finally resolve.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that define who Dallas, Florida, and the Moreys become.