Louisa is a young violinist from Toronto. But alas, her professional naturalist parents want her to spend her summer break with her uncle in the Tasmanian bush. Absolutely everything is strange and somewhat frightening from the dilapidated logging-camp home to the native animals including huge spiders. And to add insult to injury, a neighbor boy, Colin, with autistic social issues comes to live with them. But Louisa’s compassionate nature draws her to Uncle Ruff’s endangered wildlife and their family history of assisting these precious animals. In addition, she is drawn to help Colin accept himself and to interpret his classmates’ social cues. But surprisingly, it is Louisa’s willingness to help the animals, Colin, and Uncle Ruff that brings her a way to help her musical self. Shipped halfway around the world to spend the summer with her mom's eccentric Australian relatives, middle schooler and passionate violinist Louisa is prepared to be resentful. But life at the family's remote camp in the Tasmanian rainforest is intriguing, to say the least. There are pig-footed bandicoots, scary spiders, weird noises and odors in the night, and a quirky boy named Colin who cooks the most amazing meals. Not the least strange is her Uncle Ruff, with his unusual pet and veiled hints about something named Convict Rock.

Finally, Louisa learns the truth: Convict Rock is a sanctuary established by her great-grandmother Eleanor--a sanctuary for Tasmanian tigers, Australia's huge marsupials that were famously hunted into extinction almost a hundred years ago. Or so the world believes. Hidden in the rainforest at Convict Rock, one tiger remains. But now the sanctuary is threatened by a mining operation, and the last Tasmanian tiger must be lured deeper into the forest. The problem is, not since her great-grandmother has a member of the family been able to earn the shy tigers' trust.

As the summer progresses, Louisa forges unexpected connections with Colin, with the forest, and--through Eleanor's journal--with her great-grandmother. She begins to suspect the key to saving the tiger is her very own music. But will her plan work? Or will the enigmatic Tasmanian tiger disappear once again, this time forever?

A moving coming-of-age story wrapped up in the moss, leaves, and blue gums of the Tasmanian rainforest where, hidden under giant ferns, crouches its most beloved, and lost, creature.