As a troublesome teenager, Molly hides all her insecurities under the aggressive front and pretended indifference. For now, she lives in Maine with her new adoptive parents, Ralph and Dina, but she is sure that it is not for long, for she and Dina can’t see eye to eye. However, everything is not so bad. The girl starts seeing her classmate, a popular football player named Jack, and these new relationships make her happier even if she doesn’t like to admit that. Nothing special happens till the day Molly decides to steal a book. This is an old and worn copy of Jane Eyre, which is her favorite story. When she is caught, she gets 50 hours of community service in order this incident could be erased from her record. Jack – whose mother works as a house keeper for an old and wealthy lady – comes up with an idea to find some work for Molly in the old lady’s house. The girl wipes off her make-up, takes off her Goth clothes and goes to Vivian – that old lady – to meet her face-to-face. In spite of her age and Molly’s fears, Vivian turns out to be extremely understanding and tolerant. She gets the job and it is cleaning an attic.
This work proves to be far more interesting than Molly could ever imagine. She learns about Vivian more and more every day. It turns out to be that she also used to have the same problems with foster parents. Many years ago, she had a different name, Niamh, typically Irish and completely strange for New York. All her family died in the fire and the girl was put on a train for homeless and parentless children in order to find new homes for them. She met a boy there who quickly became her friend. He was chosen during their first stop and before he left he promised to find her. Niamh found her new family too. That was a family who needed a worker not a child. Due to the stock market’s crash, her foster parents decided to send her away and that was how she found her new family. The life was even worse there but – at least – she was allowed to go to school. She had to run away from them because her foster father tried to rape her. Courtesy of her teacher’s and a teacher’s landlady help, Niamh got a place to stay and soon enough a new family which treated her with respect and care. She attended the school and helped with the shop. Sometime later, they asked her to change her name for Vivian and offered her to adopt her officially. In such a way, she became Vivian. One day she agreed to go out with her friends and met Hans, the boy from the train, in the restaurant. He was a musician. They married soon and lived happily together until the World War II started. He was send to China and Vivian found out that she was pregnant. Unfortunately, her husband was killed. Being completely heartbroken, she decided to give her child up for adoption. When the war ended, she met a friend of Hans, a man named Jim, and married him soon.
Molly and Vivian become friends. Being extremely interested in Vivian’s story, Molly manages to find out that her sister survived that fire and had a long life. Both her boyfriend and his mother start suspecting something strange, for they don’t believe in friendship between the old lady and the teenager. They think that she might want to gain something from her. After an especially nasty quarrel with Dina, the girl decides to leave her foster parents’ house. Having nowhere to go, she goes to Vivian and from that time lives with her. She teaches the old lady how to use a laptop and Vivian starts discovering a new world. They find her daughter and – for the very first time after many years – she gets a chance to see her. Molly’s life also improves. After learning the whole truth, Jack stops being so unsupportive of Molly’s dedication to Vivian. The story ends with a scene of a mother and a daughter reunion.
