When she hears reports of bear roaming the backyards of Selinsgrove, Hilde and her sister/photographer Izzy are determined to get the story for their own newspaper, the Orange Street News--but when they find out the culprit is a black bear cub, their scoop turns into a rescue mission.

Selinsgrove is in the grip of alien fever because people saw a UFO, but nine-year-old reporter Hilde is skeptical about aliens--however when she and her photographer sister Izzy find evidence that something crashed near Grove Pond they are intrigued, (and nervous), and determined to investigate the story for Hilde's newspaper, the Orange Street News.

Hilde and her sister/photographer Izzy have two cases to investigate for their paper, the Orange Street News: someone is stealing vegetables from the local greenhouse, and a lot of people seem to be getting sick eating the hot dogs from a local food stand--and soon Hilde starts to believe that the two cases may be related.