Mrs. Kazinski, the old woman who lives in the attic of the old Grant Street rooming house, turns eighty on Sunday. Frank, who lives with his mother in the back rooms on the main floor, is her friend. He wants to give her the best present in the world. But what could that be? He asks all the motley residents in the house and they do have good ideas, but in the end the local cat is the most help of all. On Mrs. Kazinski's birthday, Frank carries a kitten up the stairs, but his true gift is something even more precious.