When the Flood of 1894 bankrupts her father's dry good business, twelve-year-old Marcella Abbott's pampered and privileged world is suddenly washed away. Her family is forced to sell their house in Portland, Oregon, and to live year-round in their summer home on the Washington State peninsula.

Now Marcella has to get used to the idea of being poor. More important, she must also learn to fend for herself and adjust to the down-to-earth "natives," especially her classmate and neighbor Sarah Kimball (whom readers first met in Beatty's best-selling classic, The Nickel-Plated Beauty.) Rambunctious and fun-loving, Sarah is as different from Marcella as night is from day. But a shared sorrow and a mysterious shipwrecked woman thaw the last of Marcella's Portland reserve. She and Sarah are soon walking barefoot on the beach, exchanging Christmas presents and confidences, and trying to discover the identity of the beautiful, golden-haired lady from the sea.

Unforgettable characters, a fast-paced plot, and an entertaining glimpse of bygone days make Sarah and Me and the Lady from the Sea another triumph by always-popular novelist Patricia Beatty.

From the dust jacket