Ellie always hoped to spend summer in a camp, but not the way it turns out to be: together with her brother Alan and her mother, who''s working as a nurse in the infirmary of a boys camp. Her arrival at ''Camp Challenge, On the Shores of Lake Pollywog'' is a series of shocks: a shabby apartment,a lumpy mattress, lousy food and an icy cold lake to swim in.

Then she starts to make friends with Tim, a shy boy. She
makes an enemy, too. Shawn, bragging about his home,
bullying her. Ellie thwarts Shawn''s attempts to win the
Camper of the Year title. But then she finds out the sad
truth about him.