A QUESTION OF TIME
By
They're not city people, Syd (for Sydelle) Stowe's parents decide--though she loves New York--so they buy a hardware store in little Parkersburg, Minnesota, which just happens to be (no explanation) the town Syd's 95-year-old great-grandfather, Jake, left in 1901 to become an actor. Where Syd now discovers an elderly toy-maker, Mr. Stowe, and his granddaughter Laura who--through a complex chain of circumstances involving look-alike dolls--turn out to be the ghosts of Jake's grandfather and sister, apparently hovering around until the family name (Jake was reputed murdered by his father) can be cleared. Which Syd, no longer mourning the loss of New York, will proceed to do by writing the story of Jake's later life for the local kids' newspaper. Tenuous, to put it politely.