One stormy night sixth-grader Jacob Doolittle finds a baby in a basket on his front porch. To Jake's surprise, his mother decides to care for the baby, hoping its mother will return. However that surprise is nothing compared to what happens to "Little Dumpling" the first time there's a full moon....

Soon Jake and his best friend, "Weird Lily" Carker, find themselves in "Always October," the secret world of monsters. Even more frightening, they discover that the safety of both the human world and Always October depends on them protecting Little Dumpling from a group of monsters out to kidnap him.

Thrills and laughs abound in this story that Publisher's Weekly dubbed a "spine-tingling rollick" and that the Bulletin of the Center for Children's books hailed for its "surprisingly charming blend of fantasy and mystery."