One wacky building. One amazing summer.

According to her mother, Iris is supposed to spend the summer safely indoors, keeping the apartment clean and learning to type. But when Iris follows a cat out onto the fire escape one day, she ends up meeting some of the amazing people who live in her building, including Yolanda, the Cat Lady, and the angry boy with the peashooter. So she comes up with two summer goals of her own: to earn some money, and to spend as much time outside the stuffy apartment as possible.

The money starts trickling in thanks to Iris's many neighbors and her errand-running business. But little does she know her job -- and her typing skills -- will lead her to play a major role not only in the future of her building, but also in the lives of forty-plus cats. And in the end, Iris gets something she didn't even know she was looking for....