Over the next several years, Novalee builds a life. She discovers a talent for photography, weathers a devastating tornado that claims the life of Sister Husband, and watches as Willie Jack—who left her for a failed music career—falls into a life of ruin and regret.
In the small town of Sequoyah, Oklahoma, seventeen-year-old finds herself at a crossroads that would terrify anyone. Heavily pregnant and possessing only $5.55 to her name, she is abandoned by her boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, at a local Wal-Mart .
The story culminates in Novalee’s realization that "home" isn't a building or a town, but the people who stand by you when you have nothing. After years of feeling like an outsider, she finally lets go of her fears, repairs the Wal-Mart floor where Americus was born, and chooses a future with Forney. It is a journey of a girl who lost everything at a discount store only to find a wealth of love she never thought possible.
The man who saved her, whose quiet devotion challenges Novalee’s belief that she isn't worthy of love.
The birth of her daughter, whom she names , transforms Novalee from a transient girl into a local celebrity. More importantly, it anchors her to a "chosen family" of eccentric, kind-hearted locals:
A eccentric woman who takes Novalee in and offers her a real home.
A resilient nurse and mother of five who becomes Novalee’s best friend.
Left with nowhere to go and a superstitious fear of the number five, Novalee secretly takes up residence inside the store. She lives between the aisles by night and blends in with the customers by day, creating a makeshift home out of sheer necessity. This hidden life ends when she goes into labor on the floor of the store during a thunderstorm, rescued by a reclusive, bookish librarian named .
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