The first summer the children go to their grandmother's house, a reporter comes looking for info on the infamous man who has just died, Shotgun Cheatham.

The next summer, the Cowgill boys are tormenting the town by blowing up Grandma's mailbox or Effie Wilcox's privy.

While Mary Alice is recently idolizing a tap dancer and film actress Shirley Temple, mismatched families of local lovers converge on Grandma's house and she uses an old ghost story to aid them.

At night time Vandalia Eubanks and Junior Stubbs run away together with the help of "The Phantom Brakeman" (Joey) and Grandma.

While Joey is having a love affair with a Hudson Terraplane 8 (a new car model), Grandma is finding a way to force banker Mr. Weidenbach to return Mrs. Effie Wilcox to her foreclosed home with rumors of Abe Lincoln.

Peck's sequel to this book, A Year Down Yonder, won the Newbery Medal for children's literature in 2001.

[2] In 2012 it was ranked number 67 on a list of the top 100 children's novels published by School Library Journal.