Her father and herself have never known a permanent home. No, Abilene Tucker is only familiar with dust, hungriness, and the thud of her heart before she leaps off trains from town to town. But when Abilene’s health takes a scarring turn towards death, her father, without so much as a short explanation, sends her off to the town he lived in for a while when he was young. That summer, she discovers her father’s past in the town, Manifest, that apparently didn’t used to be so dusty and shriveled. Through the stories of a wise old diviner (a fortune-teller), hidden trinkets, and a mission to find the supposed haunting spirit that roams the woods, the mystery she calls her father, is slowly solved.