August was sleeping peacefully...until his best friend Mikhail (male Russian 12 year old) breaks his window with a rock to wake him up (it was an accident) when August asks why they did that, Misha and Dell (male Texan 8 year old) tell him the snow in the field is gone, meaning they can go to their "fortress" (abandoned factory)...but when they get there...August's twin sister Gretchen and her friends (Jane: American male 11 year old. Flo: Australian female 11 year old. Jeremy: American male 10 1/2 year old. Tavish: Scottish male 11 year old. and Jacques: French male 13 year old) are there and took their fortress, and they don't seem to want to give the fortress up