Lively correspondence, diary entries, photographs, and background narrative enchantingly portray early 20th-century life in an isolated coastal community and Portland boarding school, and shows an extraordinary bond between a devoted mother and her sensitive young daughter.

Like many children, Sydney Medora Little (now Stevens) was captivated by the many old toys, books, and other mementos tucked away in her grandparents' home. At age eleven, while spending a year there, she came across a diary written by Medora Espy in 1914. The two shared an unusual name, one that had been carried down through five generations of daughters, so it was not surprising that this aunt she had never known intrigued her. She read and re-read the journal, and almost certainly plied her grandmother with questions.

Now Stevens herself resides in the historic home. "The furniture, the china and silver, the books and bric-a-brac which have become treasured keepsakes of the family and of a bygone era are now a part of my daily life. As I have used her dishes, dusted her marble-topped dressers and refilled the kerosene lamps against the inevitable winter power outages, I have come to know a whole new dimension of my grandmother's life, albeit nearly one hundred years later."