Cammie likes routines. She likes schedules. She likes things to happen on time and when she expects them. She likes order in her city life, her classroom, and at home with her family. When life is predictable, it is perfect. Then one day her father says that he has planned a weekend camping trip for their family. Camping? Oh no! Camping means messes and mishaps. Camping means chaos and calamity. No, no, no, Dad, warns Cammie. Camping is a terrible idea!

But her father doesn't change his mind and off they go. And sure enough, camping is chaos. There are trees with roots that trip, pesky biting mosquitoes, and campfire smoke that blows in one's face. Cammie wants to go home. But, as it turns out, Mother Nature has her own set of rhythms and routines, from sunrises and sunsets to ocean tides rolling in and out. There are calming nighttime sounds and reassuring orderly patterns in the night sky. Will Cammie find out that perhaps camping isn't as terrible as she expected?