It’s hard to be responsible for everything—especially when you’re still in school. And Tashka has to handle school work for her father, arrange a wedding for friends of the family, find a good home for a crocodile—and, most of all, keep an eye on the old, old house. The house has a life of its own: it sighs at night, creaks the floorboards, and hums with the gutter pipes. In it, everything is familiar and everything is unusual: a singing dog and a talking cat, a neighbor who remembers Napoleon’s march, the shadow of a slightly crazy great-great-grandmother, an old house spirit with quirks, and many other surprising and strange stories.