When Lily sees an advertisement in the local newspaper announcing a lottery for land plots to grow Victory Gardens, she's eager to apply. She loves growing flowers in the window box of her family's third floor apartment. Lily longs for a big house with a big garden with every kind of flower.

But when the garden club president tells her she's too young to participate, Lily refuses to give up her dream of having her own garden. She knows where there's a house with a big yard and plenty of space.

The Bishops live in the largest house in town. It also has the largest yard. But the Bishops' son, Ned, was the first soldier from the town to die in the war. Now Mr. Bishop spends his days working at the bank and Mrs. Bishop has hidden herself away in their house, a prisoner of her grief.

When Lily asks Mr. Bishop for the use of a small plot of earth within his yard, he grudgingly gives his approval. But it comes with the stern warning, "No bothering Mrs. Bishop."

As Lily goes about the business of planting and nurturing her garden, she comes to see that the human heart is its own garden, with the same needs for care, attention, and love.

Against the backdrop of World War II, Helen L. Wilbur has written a story of loss, kindness, and the healing power of nature.

From the dust jacket