Creative, intelligent, nine-year-old Mina keeps a journal in her own disorderly way that reveals how her mind is growing into something extraordinary, especially after she begins homeschooling under the direction of her widowed mother.

There are some strange ideas floating around in Paul's apartment block. There's Molly, who now calls herself Clara, whose brother hides under a paper bag. Then there's Clarence, the poodle who thinks he can fly. But the strangest notion of all is Paul's. Paul believes that the moon is not the moon but a great hole in the sky. And he knows that sausages are better than war.