Twelve-year-old Coco Hidden has grown up in her mother's chocolate shop in Colorado, along with her friend Leo de la Cueva, but recently things have not been going well; the shop is failing, and Leo is hanging out with the other boys, and barely wants to talk to her--but when they both win a culinary contest, the two children and their mothers find themselves on a trip to the Amazon in Ecuador, where Coco hopes to find the rare ceiba tree, and where the plight of the native people and their jungle gives her a new perspective and purpose in life.
