In 1972, when Rissa’s grandmother dies, and she and her two sisters and brother have to move to Boston, to live with their Aunt Clara, it seems like their world is coming to an end. Then their aunt takes them to live in the country, in an old, rambling Victorian house, the Minnow Creek Inn, where no one has lived for years. This is a house unlike any the children have seen before, where the bathtubs have feet, there is a real back staircase, and outside, they find an overgrown garden with statues of Greek gods and goddesses hidden among ancient rose bushes. Then, just as life seems full of exciting possibilities, their Aunt Clara falls in love, and it looks like things will change all over again.