This book is about a girl named Hattie Owen who is about 11-13 years old. It takes place in like the 40s-mid 60s. Hattie is a girl who doesn’t really have friends and lives in a very small town. But her world turns crazy when her uncle Adam comes. Her biggest surprise is not even that she never knew him, but that he is a mentally retarded person. Hattie struggles dealing with her uncle in public at first but then Hattie finds out, 'how tiny a town can be, and how big the world outside is, and how far everyone's hearts and minds can go'. (quoted from author Ann M. Martin)