14-year-old Alyssa Bradburn lives in a trailer park outside Corsicana, Texas with her drug-addicted mom and her younger autistic half-brother, Ethan. When her mom mysteriously vanishes, social services take Alyssa and Ethan away and separate them. Ethan is placed with his paternal grandparents, Michael and Maude Parks, while Alyssa is placed in a children's home called Wildflower Ranch. Despite the kindness of the people at the ranch, Alyssa desperately misses her brother and worries his grandparents are abusing him.
Wildflower Ranch contains examples of:
- Dedication: "This book is dedicated to my husband, Terry. It would not have been written without his support and encouragement."
- Disappeared Dad: Alyssa doesn't even know who her dad was. Although she eventually finds a ring he gave her mom and a high school photo of her parents hidden under the trailer. Ethan's dad left around the time he was diagnosed.
- Foster Kid: Alyssa and Ethan briefly live with a foster couple called the Woodards before they're split up.
- Minor Living Alone: After Alyssa's mom disappears, she pretends for two weeks that everything is normal because she doesn't want to be separated from Ethan. She makes money for food by tutoring other kids. When the lights go out because Alyssa can't pay the electricity bills, she worries about what Ethan will do without his morning glass of cold milk. She doesn't have to worry, because the next day Ethan breaks his arm, the hospital fails to locate his mother, and Alyssa is forced to tell the truth.
- Missing Mom: Alyssa goes into her mom's room to wake her up, only to find the bed empty. The police find no trace of her. Alyssa does eventually find a letter her mom left for her.
- Promotion to Parent: Alyssa has been taking care of Ethan almost entirely by herself since she was nine and he was two, when their mother started taking drugs. At first she resented him, but soon grew to love him fiercely.
