"Do not sell the angel with the smeared lips," Granny Flo instructs her friend Rose, as she leaves to buy supplies to make more of the dolls that hung on the tree growing right through the middle of her house in Crystal Springs, Arkansas. Even though its lips are smeared, Granny knows there is something special about this doll-something in the way her eyes sparkle. But within an hour, the doll is in Tina Dott's car on the way to New York, along with all of Granny's other dolls. Feeling guilty, Tina gives the angel to Lisa, a neighbor girl in a cast, but finds she immediately regrets it. Meanwhile, Lisa develops a special bond with the doll and, finding Granny Flo's name on the doll's tag, writes her a letter asking for advice on how to correct the smeared lips. Through their letters, the two become friends. When the doll goes missing, Lisa believes Tina Dott has taken the doll for herself. As she looks for the doll, it becomes clear that the doll seems to change those who come in contact with it for the better. What could make the doll so magical?