"One day a young couple wakes to find a boy asleep on their porch. Unable to speak, the boy cannot explain his history. What kind of people would leave their child with strangers? All John and Marta know is that they have been chosen to care for this boy. As their connection to him grows, they embrace his exuberant spirit and talents. The three of them blossom into an unlikely family, but how long can their happiness last?"-- From dust jacket flap....

Rendered mute following a traumatic friendship breakup, seventeen-year-old Machi prays to a Japanese goddess to become a vacuum cleaner robot, but accidentally conjures the deity, who's determined to show Machi that life is worth living.

Although mute, Delia quickly becomes part of the "family" at a most unusual orphanage, where classes include Fairy Tale Studies, a field trip may result in a monster sighting, and classmates include a hedgehog and a boy whose head is an onion.

Taken in by a poor family in a rural village after the death of her father, Sunflower bonds with the family's only child, Bronze, who has not spoken since being traumatized by a terrible fire.

In 1984, following her mother's suicide, 15-year-old Maya and her Sikh father travel to New Delhi from Canada to place her mother's ashes in their final resting place. On the night of their arrival, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated, Maya and her father are separated when the city erupts in chaos, and Maya must rely on Sandeep, a boy she has just met, for survival.