A Kansas brother and sister set out to visit a crotchety elderly relative at her seaside village home on Cape Cod. On the bus they meet up with her neighbor, a scientist from the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who befriends them when they miss connections. He fascinates them with accounts of sea expeditions aboard the research vessel ATLANTIS, and adds that his own son Eric is their same age. But upon arrival at Cousin Lou's, she shows marked hostility at the mere mention of his name. Their unusual and adventurous encounter with Eric results in instant friendship. But Cousin Lou, who brands Eric a thief, also discloses that his father is the local pariah, shunned by all for a crime he is believed to have committed a year ago. How can they possibly clear Eric's name, and that of his father as well? The supposed crime is a year old and the trail is cold! In a tightly knit and well-plotted story filled with adventure, they also absorb a lot about ecology, the environment and science, areas where our young people lag behind their European counterparts. The Cape Cod background is authentic. The characters are well delineated.