Eleven-year-old Gilly has been stuck in foster families for as long as she can remember, and she's despised them all . She has a county-wide reputation for being smart, assertive, and out of control. So when she's sent to live with the Trotters, far and away the strangest family to ever take her in, Gilly comes up with a crafty little scheme get her real mother to come "rescue" her. But things don't unfold the way she'd planned. And when time comes to go, the great Gilly Hopkins starts to think that maybe with the Trotters isn't so shabby after all.