Here is the story of a warm and lively friendship that grows among four young teen-age girls and a life-battered old lady. When thirteen-year-old Amanda Barnett and her three cohorts meet Mrs. Hankinson, they discover that she is an accomplished quilt maker. Her dream is to make the beautiful quilt named O the Red Rose Tree, but to do so she needs seven shades of red in materials that will not bleed. The four resourceful girls resolve to find the scarce cloth, and their search leads them into one hilarious escapade after another. Whether they are scheming to get their hands on the local doctor's red flannel chest protector or a glamorous opera singer's red petticoat, their energy and determination never flag.

Once again Patricia Beatty has created a vivid picture of a small town in the mid-1890's on the west coast of Washington. The novel, rollicking and touching in turn, gains added depth from its underlying theme that frequently the young and the old have much in common.

From the dust jacket