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Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.It's all Brigitte's fault -- for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won't be allowed. She'll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own -- and quick. But she hadn't planned on a dust storm. Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.

乐琦是一个十岁的小女孩，住在加利福尼亚州一个叫硬土镇的沙漠小镇里。两年前，她的妈妈在一场暴风雨后触电身亡。爸爸有自己的生活，不愿意照顾乐琦，就把自己的法国前妻布瑞琪请来，成了乐琦的临时监护人。有了这个与众不同的法国妈妈之后，乐琦从生母去世的打击中恢复过来，开始了新的生活。乐琦现在唯一担心的事情是，布瑞琪有朝一日会将她送到孤儿院，独自返回她深爱的法国。乐琦希望找到阻止布瑞琪抛弃自己的办法。因此，她努力做个“完美小孩”，还常常偷听“十二步疗法无名会”会员的谈话，想从他们的经验中找到属于自己的“神奇力量”。但是，神奇力量还没有出现，她就发现布瑞琪做好了返回法国的准备。乐琦因此跌入了人生的谷底，她决心通过离家出走让布瑞琪意识到自己有多么爱乐琦。于是，在一个沙暴肆虐的下午，乐琦背上沉沉的救生背包，向沙漠深处走去……