The Missing Lamb is a serendipitous story about love, family, and opening your heart to the unexpected.

Lucky James doesn’t feel very lucky. Just as she was headed to college, her father had a nervous breakdown, she lost both her wallet and her college paperwork, and she became stranded in a small town miles away from home and college.

Only weeks from her eighteenth birthday, and worried about the implications for both herself and her father if anyone discovers that she’s a lost juvenile, Lucky takes her two bags—one with her father’s treasured lamb figurine packed inside—and settles in a local laundromat until she can figure things out.

Unlike her name, Mary Christmas isn’t all that merry. She’s old and she’s tired—old enough to mind her own business and tired of her family always trying to stay in it. Mary lives alone, still takes care of herself, she still cooks, plays her lotto numbers, and even though she has a bad hip, she still gets around just fine.

When Mary falls while at the laundromat and Lucky helps her, the two embark on a friendship that challenges both Mary’s resolve and teaches Lucky that her luck might not be as bad as she’s come to believe.