Set in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1937, this is a story of family relationships in trouble. Amy, who is nine, wants to be friends with George, her workaholic father. George, a new dean at Harvard, who is also involved with the New Deal, has little time for his two young daughters. Amy is miserable in her new school and tries to make friends with an unhappy man, who enters their household as a butler. His horrifying fate shocks the whole family and yet it changes the relationship between George and Amy for the better, initiating a new trust and friendship