On the changing checkerboard of Christmasville, buildings and homes are rearranged annually. The calendar consists of only two pages: December and January. But no one gets any older. And the worst of ailments is poison ivy, and color blindness, and signs of that most harrowing of afflictions: partial blindness. No one knows where the trains go or what lies beyond the mountains and forests. They've never seen grass or walnut trees, but they do discover how tomatoes are named. And roses and violets and orchids. In a town nestled between magic and miracle, dream and deja vu, Mary Jane Higgins embarks on a series of perilous journeys, determined to resolve the enigma of Christmasville. Although it's forbidden, she crosses train tracks, approaches the bottomless abyss, travels through a wilderness that "operates according to a different set of rules." Could Mary Jane's suspicions be true? Could the town in which she resides be a Christmas village, situated on a 4 x 8 model train platform?