Terribly shy, India Wimple is brilliant at spelling and her loving family will do whatever it takes to help her compete in a televised national spelling bee in Sydney, Australia.

Twelve-year-old Ben, who aspires to be a police officer, struggles to do the right thing when his parents suddenly take him and his little sister "on vacation," and he learns they took a large amount of money that was mistakenly deposited in their bank account.

With help from their cousin Harry, eight-year-old twins Ella and Ethan discover who is illegally taking coral from the reefs near their aunt and uncle's beach house on the shore of Australia's Coral Sea.

Bee faces friction at home and at school when her widowed father begins seriously dating Jazzi, who seems to take over the house and their lives, but as shared secrets and common interests finally begin to draw them together, Jazzi accidentally makes a terrible mistake.