Journalist Amy Haimerl and her husband had been priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Seeing this as an opportunity to start over, they decide to cash in their savings and buy an abandoned house for $35,000 in Detroit. As she and her husband restore the 1914 Georgian Revival, a stately brick house with no plumbing, no heat, and no electricity, Amy finds a community of Detroiters who aren’t afraid of a little hard work. Filled with amusing and touching anecdotes about navigating a real-estate market that is rife with scams, finding a contractor who is a lover of C.S. Lewis and willing to quote him liberally, and neighbors who either get teary-eyed at the sight of newcomers or urge Amy and her husband to get out while they can, Amy writes about the charms and challenges of finding her footing in a city with a questionable future.