When author Eliza Thomas realizes suddenly, in her forties, that she has forgotten to make a life or a home, she thinks it's time to find an alternative to her leaky, drafty apartment in Boston. After a few trips to the country, she finds an old Boy Scout cabin in a small valley in Vermont. At first Thomas's one-room cabin doesn't seem like a place where she could live year-round - even with the cabinets and bunk beds that the previous owners added. It's just somewhere to go on the weekends for some peace and quiet. But with Yankee ingenuity and a good sense of humor, Thomas sets about turning this tiny, eccentric structure into something closer to home. She clears the land, builds two additions - the first to accommodate her grand piano and bed, the second to make room for her newly adopted Chinese daughter, Amelia - and she plants a garden. In the midst of all the construction, the mice, and the unexpected disasters, Thomas explores neighboring woods and farmland, rescues a puppy named Freddy, and with much imagination and a few stops at local yard sales, makes her quirky place livable.