Eccentricity is Pippin Pearmain's lifelong stock-in-trade. She used to be a niche-market performer, but at sixty-six, she hasn't worked in a decade. That doesn't matter to Pip. She has her cosy life at Lemonwood Cottage, an interesting friendship with Mister Clancy next door, walks on the beach and occasional stoushes with the officious and the annoying. She enjoys her regular ballet practice, and her daily battle with the bad-tempered lemon tree in the garden.

Pip has two cat companions, and if they choose to communicate with her in Cat-Morse about things no cat should be concerned with, well—no one else needs to know. Above all, she has her green-penned bucket list. That is unique.

An impulsive trip to her old hometown stirs memories for Pip when she meets her cousins Juniper and Lupin at the Delmsford Flower Show. Over a nostalgic afternoon tea provided by the Lilac Ladies in their retro-pinnies, Pip shares a long-held secret with her cousins and is given their secrets in return. Jan's secret is fun. Lupin's secret will be turning Pip's life upside down...but not quite yet.

First, she has to negotiate the flower show... shuffle her place in the family pack and accept the unexpected gift of Lupin's cat.