One by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a trash-filled, inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful garden, and, in doing so, the gardeners are themselves transformed.
"Mira lives in a gray and hopeless urban community until a muralist arrives and, along with his paints and brushes, brings color, joy, and togetherness to Mira and her neighbors"--.
Don Apolinar urges Jimmy, who lives in a small Caribbean town where there is not much to do, to start training at the boxing gym and to read about Muhammad Ali. Jimmy begins to realize that he is a good boxer and finds that he would be happy running the gym and improving his hometown.
Under a new government program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child," the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by an entire town, with disastrous results.