Set in Salt Lake City at the height of the Great Depression, Linda Sillitoe's last novel opens with three little girls, eleven-year-old triplets, skipping in front of their house across from the park. Unknown to them, the elephant the children of Utah purchased for the circus by donating nickels and dimes goes on late-night strolls with her trainer. They do know that sometimes the elephant escapes and goes on rampages in the neighborhood. The girls' father is a police officer investigating a boy's disappearance. As the case unfolds, the perception of the park changes from a place of freedom to a place to be avoided. The story is loosely based on the exploits of a real live elephant that lived in Salt Lake's Liberty Park a decade before Sillitoe's childhood in the neighborhood.