As the family waits for the key to the cottage where they will be staying along Lake Michigan.  Shoo reads a historical marker about the French explorer LaSalle that launches his parents into a history lesson.  But they are interrupted by L.T. Dimitrius, an old man with his old stories of the lakes to tell.

Later in the day when Allie and Shoo are alone at the cottage and involved in one of their sibling skirmishes, an unexpected storm arises on Lake Michigan.  On the beach before them, a shocking event takes place that only the old L.T. can help them make sense of.  As the seemingly unrelated stories of LaSalle and L.T. interweave, Allie and Shoo witness one of the greatest mysteries of the Great Lakes, the ghost ship Griffin.

(This is one of my favorites as I was able to use journals of those who were involved in storms on the Great Lakes.)