In the novel, Gypsy Summer, all Katie Barnes wants is to be a normal thirteen- year-old with a normal home again. She and her family had moved from Kansas to Washington State hoping to find a better life. Instead, they are completely homeless and four states away from family and friends. She is living her life in a soggy tent, from which her most precious possession was stolen. Katie chafes under the stress of being homeless, forced to accept charity, struggling to fit in with the other kids. Ultimately she blames God, who has apparently abandoned her to this miserable life.