Lowen and his family apply to buy a house in Millville for $1. They are ready to move out of the city because Lowen's friend was recently killed in a shooting. When the family is accepted to the dollar program they are not all excited to move, but life in small town Millville quickly grows on the kids. 

Millville needs more people. When the mill shut down a lot of people and businesses moved out. So the dollar families are selected because of their children and their skills. The kids are expected to participate in the school to help keep the sports teams going. The parents are expected to participate in the town to help revitalize it. They are also given a year to renovate their dollar houses and make them livable. 

Lowen's mom starts the Cornish Eatery. She sells individual takeout pies. She chose a lunch place because the only other restaurant in town only served breakfast. But The Busy Bee obviously doesn't like competition and starts serving lunch and taking away prospective customers. So the family is struggling. The dad can't move to town right away because of the expenses of starting the restaurant and renovating the house. The kids all have to pitch in. 

Lowen is also dealing with the grief and guilt of losing his friend. Living next door to the town funeral home doesn't help. But getting involved in sports and making friends does. 

I will admit to struggling with this book a bit, but it ended up being worth the read. It is depressing and long. The family has so few successes throughout the novel that I really worried this was going to be one of those rare middle grade books without a happy ending. Because of the struggles the ending actually seemed a bit too happy to me. 

I do believe the struggles of moving to a new town, dealing with grief and trying to start a business were very accurately portrayed. I do wonder about the reaction of the towns people though. The two characters that seemed to be the most against the dollar families were both on the town council. They were the ones that approved the program so you would have thought they would have been more supportive and want them to succeed. That was a big misstep for me.