The novel opens in 1985, as Katy “Docky” Thatcher, a retired doctor, reflects on her life. An only child until age eight, she was a pretentious and well-loved little girl. Her physician father allowed her to accompany him for much of his work. She recalls that “by thirteen I already knew that I wanted to be a doctor, too” (4). Katy recalls her neighbors, the Bishops, who lost one son to war. She recalls the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, as well as the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911. She remembers the asylum that is now closed. Every time she sees it, she recalls Jacob Stoltz, “the boy who had […] changed my life forever” (6).

Katy is six years old and planning her birthday party. She talks about her friends Austin and Jessie. Katy thinks Austin is lucky because his father, a lawyer, loves machinery and spends a lot of time in his barn making a surprise for Austin’s birthday. Austin’s father makes him a pedal-operated go-cart, and Katy hears her mother call it amazing, so she thinks it is called a “mazing.”

Katy also thinks Austin is lucky because he has a baby sister named Laura Paisley.