Three weeks before Christmas, eighteen-year-old Sondra Lewis leaves her
newborn
daughter on the doorstep of the St. Clement
Church rectory in
an old stroller. At the same moment, Lenny Centino is inside the
church stealing a valuable chalice. When Lenny runs from the
church, he grabs the stroller containing the infant to provide cover
for his flight, not knowing the
child is inside. Lenny is clearly
unsuited - and unwilling - to be a parent, but his Aunt Lilly,
believing the child to be Lenny’s own, undertakes to raise the child,
whom she calls Stellina.
Seven years later, Sondra has become an accomplished violinist and
returns to New York just before Christmas to look for her daughter, but
can find no trace of her. Although she is about to play at
Carnegie Hall, Sondra feels as if her life is falling apart because she
cannot live with the guilt of having abandoned her child. She
needs help and finds it when she meets Alvirah Meehan, who sets out to
find Sondra’s child and the stolen chalice.
Alivirah is already trying to untangle the mystery of how Bessie
Maher’s will was altered to disinherit her
sister Kate. Kate had
intended to give Bessie’s house over to Home Base, the free day-care
centre run by Sister Cordelia in St. Clement’s Parish. The centre
provides a warm, safe refuge after school for the local children,
including Stellina, but the couple living in the fourth-floor apartment
have somehow swindled Kate out of the house. While Alvirah is
certain that the Bakers are con artists, she cannot figure out how they
faked a new will. If Alvirah cannot uncover the swindle, Stellina
and the other children will have nowhere to go after school.
Stellina’s ersatz father, Lenny, is back from Florida where he has been
involved in the drug trade; he is already scheming to use Stellina in
his business whenever his seriously-ill Aunt Lilly should die.
Stellina is frightened of him and prays that her mother will
return. Time is short: Lenny is intent on leaving New York
with Stellina as soon as possible, Sister Cordelia will have to close
Home Base right after Christmas if the fake will cannot be broken, and
Sondra is desperate for news of her daughter.
Alvirah untangles the threads of these mysteries with heartwarming
common sense and the support of her husband Willy and their
friends. It is a perfect story for the Christmas season.
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