Miss Ona Vitkus has - aside from three months in the summer of 1914 - lived unobtrusively, her secrets fiercely protected. The boy, with his passion for world records, changes all that. He is eleven. She is one hundred and four years, one hundred and thirty three days old (they are counting). And he makes her feel like she might be really special after all. Better late than never.Only it's been two weeks now since he last visited, and she's starting to think he's not so different from all the rest.Then the boy's father comes, for some reason determined to finish his son's good deed.

And Ona must show this new stranger that not only are there odd jobs to be done, but a life's ambition to complete.