In this slice of urban life, readers are introduced to Aunt Lilly, who left her beloved homeland many years before to come to New York, where she operates a laundromat. Lilly is outgoing and cheerful, and continually sees connections between her world in Brooklyn and her life as a child in Haiti. Throughout the text, which follows the woman through her day of washing, drying, folding, and chatting, she recalls sensations and colors and then records them on canvas in her back-room studio. The decorative, full-page illustrations alternate lively scenes that evoke a sense of Carribean color and charm with equally vivid pictures of the laundromat.