Dinnie's father has to travel often for work. This means that Dinnie is never in one place for too long. In the beginning of the story, you learn about how she regrets that she has to move from place to place and wishes she could live in one place where she could develop lasting relationships with friends. When her brother joins the Air Force, her father continues traveling, and her sister becomes pregnant, her mother's aunt and husband take custody of her.
Dinnie's maternal aunt takes her to Switzerland where her Uncle Max is the director of an international boarding school. She initially doesn't want to stay in Switzerland. As she meets new friends, she begins to become attached to her new home and learns to enjoy living there. Her move to Switzerland is a drastic upheaval in her life that allows her to leave her ironically stagnant nomadic life and move to a diverse and healthy new environment where she develops a new-found independence.
Dinnie meets several friends with distinctly different personalities while attending the school. An American named Lila, who Dinnie realizes early on that she likes to complain. She also befriends a Japanese boy named Keisuke. Keisuke often attaches unusual meanings to words and interprets the word "bloomability" as "possibilities." Keisuke has a Spanish girlfriend named Belen. Belen and Keisuke both have parents who disapprove of the relationship. Another important character is Guthrie, who recites the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken" at the end of the year in an assembly.
Besides the communication with her friends and her adventures, there are two other types of correspondence in the book -- postcards from her father's aunts and diary entries. Toward the end of the book, Dinnie must make a decision. Her aunt and uncle let her decide whether to stay in Switzerland or go back to America. While the decision is never explicitly stated, there is a scene in the novel when we realize that DInnie has kept her skis in the closet as a reminder of her time in Switzerland. The postcards and final decision signify a major turning point in her life as it shows her change from a child not permitted to make her own decisions to an independent thinker.