During the time of this novel, she is writing the world's longest letter to Leo, documenting her days and adventures with her new friends and difficulties in her new town.
Her best friend is Dootsie, a spunky six-year-old that also has no boundaries. She has many quirky acts that she not-so-subtly pulls off throughout the book, like dropping pennies on the sidewalk, starting a gardening business, meditating, befriending little girls, and going on milk runs with her father, a milkman. She would go to the ends of the earth to achieve happiness, not for herself, but others.
New in town, homeschooled, and feeling rejected by Leo, the 16-year-old narrator of the first book who had fallen under her spell, she is lonely and sad-her "happy wagon," where she keeps stones representing her level of happiness, is almost empty.