A meteor crashes into the woods near the small town, except it turns out to be not a meteor but an alien spaceship. The only ones alive are the pilot and her child. Both are taken to a hospital. The pilot dies shortly after, but the child is sneaked away by a nurse who keeps him alive and basically adopts him as her child. But it’s hard to keep a curious, restless alien child a complete secret.

Overall, it’s a nice book, somewhat naive, with a feel-good tone. The couple who adopt the alien boy treat him with endless love and curious wonder. Nobody is ever frustrated or angry; everyone is lovely but flawed in an almost predictable pattern. Adopting the alien heals Molly’s spiritual wounds.

This is a small-scale story, about just a few characters and their small-scale joys and worries. The book doesn’t have any grander ambition and never rises above the late 1960s suburban atmosphere. “Be nice to people who look and act differently.”