On an icy winter night, Tulip stuffs clothing in paper bags, gathers her three young children, and flees her husband. Waitressing in a run-down diner, determined to build a new life, she is terrified of further abuse and plagued with fears from her past. Tulip impulsively purchases a dilapidated house, the eyesore of the neighborhood. Her genteel neighbors are appalled by this brassy woman and her unrestrained children. Will Tulip's feisty can-do attitude, her hard work courage, and humor be enough to revive "Old Grouchy" and create a home? Or will she need help from an unexpected source. The story is set in the late 1960s, during the contentious feminist movement when women were asserting their rights for equality in the work palace. At that time, John Norman Collins, rapist and killer, was on the prowl in Ypsilanti, Michigan.