In 1900, Mandie is searching her dead uncle's mansion for a missing will when she finds a secret tunnel and strangers who claim to be her relatives

Strangers digging in the mountains, and the disappearance of Mandie's Uncle Wirt and the Cherokee boy Tsa'nie lead Mandie to a new mystery

While thirteen-year-old Mandie, her friend Celia, and her grandmother visit Senator Morton in his home in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1902, the girls uncover a series of secret plots

Mandy is bewildered by the unhappy reaction of some of her Cherokee friends to her discovery of gold inside a cave and her Christian values are tested by a troublesome Cherokee cousin

While on spring break from her girls' school in North Carolina in 1902, fourteen-year-old Mandie joins her college friend Joe in solving a mystery in the nearby mountains

When she finds herself in charge of the Christmas Eve skit, Mandie, with Joe's help, tries to remind everyone of the holiday's true meaning by secretly gathering all the town's orphans and giving them parts in the play as well as a home in the church basement. Also includes a script version of the story with stage directions