Annilee's father is no one's idea of a hero. He's a disabled, church-defying coalminer who no longer gives a damn what the priests, nuns, or neighbors think. They don't walk in his shoes. A head injury has rendered him too forgetful to keep any kind of job. Ashamed that he can't earn his keep at home, much less feed five kids, he won't live there. He has moved into a shack at a colliery that shut down ten years ago, during World War II.

            People urge his wife to put him away. No matter how odd he looks to anybody else, Annilee, seven, loves hanging out in his shack and relishes Pop's talk of a friendly God who loves the smell of sweet ferns. She's thrilled that he still comes home to help with homework, play cards, and do chores. She doesn't dare tell him that she now has to take free lunch at school, where offending God is a relentless topic, and the nuns declare any offence committed by a free-luncher
"a double slap in God's face." Annilee cannot picture the Catechism God doing anything but glaring down and recording people's sins.

            This story opens in the era of the "Red Scare" with accusations of communist affiliations throughout America. Closer to home is a Russian family hiding in a boarded-up house down the street from Annilee. She plays secretly with their little boy in the overgrown yard. Pop does his best to help keep her secret. Although the family gets driven out, Annilee cannot forget that boy. Her enduring love for him eventually leads her to Russia and the terrible tale of what drove them to flee their homeland in 1954.

            Annilee has had to grow up without Pop, who died when she was eight, but when she comes face to face with what terrified her most as a child, she may find that Pop's legacy—the joy and meaning they discovered together outside of hurtful conventions—becomes her greatest source of strength.