Ursula Maki is two years old, blond, and adorable in both physical appearance and personality. Her parents, Annie and Justin, love her to pieces, and the three make up an exceptionally happy family. Then, one day, the three go on a picnic somewhere in the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Ursula accidently falls down a disused mine shaft. Just like that, she is gone.

Of course, this sends both Annie and Justin into a frenzy. Annie stays by the mine shaft, praying and worrying, while Justin frantically goes off in search of help. As the story goes on, more and more people become connected to Ursula. Either they are part of the group helping to get her out of the mine shaft, or they are reporting about it, or they are watching it all unfold on their television screen.

In between the chapters that describe Ursula’s plight, are chapters that describe Ursula’s ancestry. We learn why Annie needs a cane to walk, why Justin plays harmonica, why Ursula hasn’t met all her grandparents. We learn just how important Ursula is to everyone in her family, and why. In addition to being wonderful, she is the last of the line.

Hill goes even further back, detailing the lives of Ursula’s ancestors. Justin has an ancestor from the third century B.C., in China, who was an alchemist. Annie has an ancestor who was the abandoned playmate of a Swedish Queen in the seventeenth century. There are many more for the reader to meet. One of Ursula’s ancestors died in a mine shaft. Will Ursula have the same fate?

This story emphasizes how we all are connected to each other. Ancestors from hundreds of years ago who a person never even knows the existence of still directly affect a person’s life. Perhaps that is where you got your special eye color, or the shape of your nose? Personality traits of Ursula’s ancestors show up in Annie, and in Justin, and also in Ursula. In many ways, a person’s ancestors are still alive, still influencing events, still coloring how people see the world.

Readers who enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, will love this book. (Read my review of The Time Traveler’s Wife here.) Both jump around in time, but not in exactly the same way. Both writers do a great job of describing the scenes for the reader. It’s like you can see it all in front of you as you read. Readers who, like me, find stories about ancestors to be interesting will also enjoy this book.