With a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt and unexpected help from her Hallelujah-spouting cousin, Henry James, Elsie Mae tries to prevent a company from building a canal through the Okefenokee Swamp.

After building his own canoe, fourteen-year-old Jack Hawkins goes to try it out in his beloved Okefenokee Swamp, where an accident tests his survival skills and leads him to a shocking discovery.