In the first chapter, Joey is nine and Mary Alice seven. They begin the journey with trepidation, but then get to experience how their Grandma can outwit her neighbors in “Shotgun Cheatham’s Last Night above Ground.” In their second trip they see how their Grandma outwits the town bullies in “The Mouse in the Milk.” The third trip finds them experiencing The Great Depression, feeding the hungry and seeing their Grandma’s soft side in “A One-Woman Crime Wave.” During their fourth trip, they experience the county fair when Grandma Dowdel enters her gooseberry pie in the competition in “The Day of Judgment.” In the fifth trip, Mary Alice makes a friend and helps her run away to elope in “The Phantom Brakeman.” During their sixth trip readers see Grandma fool everyone in town and get Mrs. Effie Wilcox’s house back after it was foreclosed on in “Things with Wings.” Their seventh and final trip happens during the town’s Centennial celebration in “Centennial Summer.” The last chapter finds Joey returning through Grandma’s town on the troop train as he’s heading for Basic Training during World War II.