Nine-year-old Aubrey has won the lead in a history play about her
hometown of Butte des Morts, Wisconsin. Mystery and adventure follow as
Aubrey digs for a costume in the attic of an old hotel called the
Trading Post. Nearly 200 years earlier, escaped slaves were hidden in
the hotel. The Trading Post was a stop on the Underground Railroad that
helped slaves travel to freedom in Canada. Grandma Carver, an ancestor
of Aubrey's new friend, Tilisha, was an escaped slave who might have hid
in Butte des Morts before disappearing without a trace. Does the attic
hold the key to what happened to her? Can friendly attic mice help the
girls find the answer? When a ferocious owl steals an important clue,
the girls, mice, and a gaggle of zany birds must work together to
retrieve it. Will they succeed? Or will Grandma Carver's fate remain a
mystery forever?