A slightly dated book, but the lessons learned transcend the barriers of time. Maryanne, the middle of five children, has a heart defect and has been ill for a long time. She has been close to the youngest child, Mark-O, but is now too sick to tell him stories. When Maryanne dies the family is around her, and a moth hatches in her room at the exact moment of death. Mark-O thinks that the moth could be related to the death and draws a picture of the magic moth for the family to remember Maryanne. Mark-O and his mother talk about why Maryanne was born and the lessons she passed on.