Life is hard in rural Georgia durin the depression. But things get better when Ida Early comes over the mountain. She's six feet tall, wears overalls, and tells the best tall tales. Maybe even some of them are even true!
For the four Sutton children, she appears just in time. with their mother dead and Ida hired on as a housekeeper, the children hope their bossy Aunt Earnestine will go back to Atlanta. And they get their wish.
In fact, the most surprising and wonderful things happen with Ida Early is around.