Maybe and her parents live in Wishing Well Farm in the Scottish Highlands. Jamie, Maybe's dad, is from Nigeria, the Ibo tribe, and while Maybe loves her dad, she hates the bullying that she gets at school because of her colour. When her dad teaches her Ibo songs or tells her stories about how he came to Scotland, she is interested, but wishes she didn't have to know. When Jamie is killed in a a car accident, Maybe and her mum react very differently. Mum retreats into depression, but Maybe takes over the farm and works tremendously hard, particularly as they are threatened with expulsion by horrible twin brothers who own the property and want to sell it to a supermarket chain. Enter Strawgirl, a magical straw creature with limited vocabulary but super powers, who becomes Maybe's best friend and who helps her save the farm. Their adventures involve flying cows and walking trees, but in the end it is Maybe and her mum's and their neighbours' efforts that save the farm and imprison the baddies. This is a long novel, written in a high poetic style, and Maybe's feelings about the loss of her dad and the differences in hers and her mum's styles of grieving are truthful and real.