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During a snowstorm, Matilda Gustave, a good-natured delivery room nurse, discovers that her patient, Charlotte, is unaware that she has delivered twin girls. Her husband, Oscar, who is working at the docks that night, falls overboard and drowns. In the hospital room next to Charlotte, a new mother, Marjorie, has just lost her baby. Heartbroken for Marjorie, Nurse Matilda secretly replaces the stillborn with the second twin born to Charlotte. Although feeling guilty about what she has done, Nurse Matilda signs the necessary paperwork, and baby Marlene, nicknamed Neecy, goes home with Marjorie and Duncan Hunter instead of her birth mother.
Charlotte, who assumes Oscar is working late, insists on taking their baby home by herself during the freezing storm. She slips and dies, and the baby, wrapped tightly in a flannel bundle, is dragged by a dog to Janiece Morton's house, who takes her in. The dog is actually angel 813. Neecy ends up at an orphanage. Lena Duncan is also orphaned after her parents, Marjorie and Duncan, fall ill and die. Will the estranged twins ever reunite?
The author's book tells an inspiring story about twin girls separated at birth. With its highly imaginative plotline, Klusmeyer uses angels, intriguingly given numbers instead of names, to intervene throughout the novel and keep the estranged twin girls safe. At times, the angels even employ dogs to help them, a plot device sure to perk interest among animal-loving readers. Klusmeyer has created a vibrant cast of characters in her part fantasy, part spiritual book. Well-meaning characters in the book make mistakes, ultimately requiring angelic intervention to save the day. Overall, this is an uplifting and entertaining novel.