Publisher's Synopsis
Meet Marie-Claire, who lives with her family in Montreal in 1885. Her parents are hard-working, but there is very little money to spare, and Marie- Claire worries about what will happen if one of them falls ill. Then a smallpox epidemic sweeps through the city, and it seems every family is affected-even Marie-Claire's. Her father, a fireman, has been injured and is unable to work. As a result her mother must take a job as a seamstress, and Marie-Claire has to stay home from school to help with the household chores and to take care of Emilie and baby Philippe.
