Gaberdine "Gaby" Robule is a dreamy, unconventional housewife living in a small farming community in northeastern Colorado. One bright June morning, she ventures out her front door to nail a hand-painted sign to the tree in front of her house, announcing the arrival of something called The Rose Trellis Tea Room. This small action sets in motion an entire chain of events throughout the town of Wickersham, where nobody is quite sure just what a tea room is supposed to be, or what need it purports to fill. Some are intrigued, many are wary, but nobody is quite so horrified as Gaberdine's fourteen year-old daughter Michy, convinced that this is just one more way her mother has found to personally humiliate her. Gaby's husband Caspar, accustomed to his wife's unique approach to life, is supportive, though just as clueless as everyone else. In short order, Gaberdine has gathered around her a crew of similar misfits who share in her vaguely-realized vision, including Arley French, a sixteen year-old socially awkward high schooler, and Hilary Blanchard, a chain-smoking British transplant. Together, this motley crew works toward building a dream that proves to be less a physical place than it is a state of mind, and a way of connecting with a world that seems to have eluded them up until now.