The rambling lakeside house called Pinecrest has lain empty since itslast owner went missing seven years ago. But for the Brewster familyit will be this year's holiday retreat, and for the kids, Eric and Marci,it's the perfect place to spend a lazy summer exploring.Which is how Eric and his teenage friends discover a curiouscollection of discarded objects stowed in a hidden room in the carriage house. The bladeless hacksaws, shadeless lamps, tableswith missing legs, a headless axe handle - these unremarkable items add up to a pile of junk. Yet someone once took the'troubleto list each worthless relic in a cryptic ledger, thus provoking a greatmystery that is now whispering, coaxing, demanding to be solved.