Sophie Barnet-Higgins and Juliana Barnet

RAINWOOD HOUSE, lightly haunted by civil rights struggles, rampant houseplants and musical plumbing, is home to University of Maryland groundskeeper Marlie Mendíval and her bat-loving granddaughter Samantha. Marlie rents a room to Demetrius, a good-natured radical horticulturist, unaware that prior to knocking on her front door Demetrius has been hiding in her basement, on the run after escaping a hail of police bullets.

MARLIE battles mounting bills, bellowing pipes, a lecherous boss, her ex’s scheme to evict her from Rainwood House, isolation, decay and self-doubt, as Samantha becomes embroiled in playground culture wars. Demetrius wanders through Rainwood House’s shuttered rooms pondering how to beat accusations of cop-shooting and terrorism while remaining incognito under Samantha’s friendly but sharp-eyed gaze. Increasingly entangled in each others’ lives, the characters join glamorous union shop steward Laranda Moss and a lively crew of supporters to launch, in the words of Labor Notes editor Jane Slaughter, “a cascade of idyllic solutions to very real-world problems,” including a friendship club, a people’s history museum, a university workers movement and a present-day Underground Railroad stop.