Becky is a teenager whose parents are divocered. She lives with her mom, Polly, and visits her dad, Chris, on weekends. When she was five, she had cancer. It went into remission after a year. When she was sick, her dad came up with the idea to create a world to help get her mind off her illness. They named this world Tamarisk. The king and queen who ruled had a daughter named Miea. The grass was blue and there was all kinds of animals and plants that did not exist anywhere else.
Becky is fourteen when she starts having sypstems she had before with the cancer. She puts off telling anyone, not wanting to admit the cancer is back. Chris notices she is acting different but thinks it's because she's growing up and doesn't have time for him. Becky is scared but she doesn't want to tell anyone. She makes a plea for help to
anyone who can help one night. She has a dream that doesn't seem like a dream, where she meets Miea. Becky discovers Tamarisk is real and Miea is now queen. The country is having trouble with a blight and Miea is not sure how to handle it. She had asked for help as well. They discover there is a way for Becky to travel to Tamarisk. She whispers to Chris as she leaves the next morning that the country is real. He doesn't know what to think.
The next weekend Becky tells her dad she traveled to Tamarisk and she wants him to come with her. He works with plants and might be able to help them with the blight. They travel there every night Becky is over. Chris has some ideas but since the rules are different in their world he can't be sure.
Becky starts to get worse and ends up in the hospital after collasping in school. The tests reveal her cancer has come back and is almost everywhere in her body. She insists on going home as soon as she can. Becky continues to travel to Tamarisk where the blight is getting worse. Miea does some tests on Becky and finds that, in Tamarisk, Becky
is fine.
Chris runs tests on the plants in Tamarisk and gets conflicting results. He is always there with Becky; he cannot come by himself. On the days they travel to Tamarisk, the tests on the plants yield different results than when their not there. At first no one can figure out why. Miea comes up with the idea, that, since Tamarisk was created to heal
Becky, she will never be sick there. Also, Tamarisk is healthier when Becky
visits.
Becky and Chris have never been able to control how long they spent in Tamarisk. They are pulled back to their world after an undefinable amount of time. Miea suggests that this is because Becky knoew her home is with her parents. Miea thinks if Becky stays in Tamarisk, she'll be healed. All she has to do is consider Tamarisk as her home.
But it will mean leaving her family and friends forever. She is dying in her world, can she live carefree in Tamarisk knowing everyone but her father will believe she is dead?