During the Republican Era famine, six-year-old orphan Marnie Hale and her sickly Grandpa Hale are driven to live in a cowshed by her Uncle Hale and Aunt Hale. On the edge of despair, she discovers that the cellar of their old house connects to a modern city, and gains the supernatural ability to see golden light. With the help of kind strangers in the modern world, Marnie obtains supplies, exchanges Republican Era Copper Coins for modern wealth, walks a hopeful path of survival in troubled times with her kind and resilient heart, and becomes a warm bridge connecting the two worlds.
