Sarah Beth is good at solving arithmetic problems at school. Now she has a real life problem. With a setting of eggs and the help of Old Dominicker, the hen, can she earn enough money to buy something she has wanted for a long time? The trouble is, the facts in the problem keep changing. And so does Sarah Beth, as she grows in her understanding of what is really important. Set in rural Virginia in the mid-1930s, the story depicts family, community, and church life during the Great Depression, when living simply was a matter of necessity.