Josie Campbell's freshman year at Wardham College was quite unlike anything she had experienced in all her sixteen years. Josie plunges into the busy life of the college campus, attempting to make decisions between the security of sorority living and the freedom of remaining an Independent. The story of a young girl learning the importance of "first of all, to thine own self be true."

At seventeen, Josie Campbell feels everything in her life is moving too fast for her. Unsure of what to do, Josie leaves Indiana to travel to Sea Haven Island to stay with a friend of her older sister Sandra. There she writes the story of her family's vagabond life, The Odd Ones. And there she meets a kindred spirit, Nils, who has also dropped out of college to run his family's boatyard.

The irrepressible, unpredictable Campbell family returns to the United States to live in Wallaceville, the college town where Dr. Campbell had been a professor. Eighteen year old Sandra and fifteen year old Josie find small town life a fascinating novelty. Beautiful Sandra is being courted by handsome and wealthy Jay while the impetuous Josie wins the lead in the school play, falls in love with the leading man and makes her first real friend in Anna Harding McCabe. The youngest Campbell, Tenny, aged ten, also find his place in this wonderful new world.

The unconventional Campbell family manage to weather a double-barreled revolt in Haiti. The good-natured fifteen-year-old Josie meets a slightly timid and unenthusiastic Scott Maitland who holds up surprisingly well through a series of disturbing events. Josie and her older sister Sandra are each put to the test through circumstances they have never encountered before.

Sandra Campbell's rather brooding shyness is overcome with the help of Jay Stagliano's understanding and light-hearted persistence. Jay helps Sandra to see her slightly unconventional family (who lives aboard the Chinese junk, Pakhoi) through new eyes. Introductory book of the Campbell Family series!