​Eighty-year old Nelly Katherine O'Claire recalls dozens upon dozens of memories of a youth spent on a small farm in Erin's Abbey, Ireland. She speaks of her mam and pap and younger brother, Liam, with a shine in her old eyes. Nelly tells of selling eggs, to Mr. Zill Whitney, a storeowner, and also a grand story-teller and family friend. He, along with neighbors and friends, could always be counted upon to lay a bit of lore in her ear.
 
She finds friends in Onora, the fairy who visits her from the time to time, and in the sometimes ill-tempered leprechaun of Jasper Hollow, whose true identity surprises her when she needs him most. Nelly weaves tales of family and friends, of hospitatlity and happiness, and of deprivation and death into her accounts of fairies and leprechauns, and of Old Jack.​
 
She shivers when the Widow Stephenson warns Liam and her to beware of jack of Halloween lore. She shudders when the dreaded cry of the banshee warns her of the death of someone she loves. Along with laughing, loving and living come learning that death is not final and that friendship is to be treasured above gold.