This work is a fantasy children's novel that explores the concept of immortality and the reasons why it might not be as desirable as it appears to be. Doomed to -- or blessed with -- eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is...

The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing any older.

After thirty years of watching for her drowned sea-captain husband, Geneva Reade is joined in her vigil by a sad man called Seward and her granddaughter Jenny.