A childless couple bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, a child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.
After receiving bad news from a fertility doctor, Cindy and Jim Green try to bury their dreams of having a child by writing out all the great traits their child would have and putting them in a box in the garden. During a freak storm in the middle of the night, they awake to find a boy named Timothy, with leaves growing from his ankles, standing in their kitchen calling them mom and dad. Cindy and Jim are thrown into the midst of parenthood and over the coming months, Timothy will teach them more than they could have imagined about being parents and raising a child, no matter how he comes into their lives.—napierslogs
Married Cindy and Jim Green live in Stanleyville, a town ruled by the pencil and the Crudstaff family. Jim works as a foreman in the pencil factory owned by Joseph Crudstaff, and managed by his ambitious son, Franklin Crudstaff. The factory is under threat with an unsustainably manufactured product, with mass layoffs and even the plant closing being possibilities. Cindy works as a tour guide at the pencil museum owned and curated by Joseph's stern and humorless wife, Bernice Crudstaff. Cindy and Jim desperately want to be parents, they believing they now emotionally prepared to be the best parents they can be. Jim is determined not be like his own father, James Green, Sr., a bully of a man who was never there for Jim. And Cindy is determined not to be like her sister, Brenda Best, who always flaunts the perfection of her parenting and her own children to the world. Cindy and Jim are devastated when they learn that they are unable to have children biologically. Before they move on with their lives following this news, they decide to hold a memorial of sorts to celebrate the traits of the biological offspring they will never have. Into their lives comes ten year old Timothy, their "son" who they quickly discover is literally sprouted from that memorial. Although Timothy has all the traits they outlined, those traits do not always manifest themselves quite the way they anticipated. While Cindy and Jim just want Timothy to be a regular kid, they also want to protect him from judgmental eyes, especially as they try to hide one one visible fact of Timothy's being from the world, that issue which can be hidden beneath clothing. Beyond the Crudstaffs, James and Brenda, one other person they want to protect Timothy from is one of his peers, Joni Jerome, Cindy and Jim unsure of the reason for the close bond that forms between the two. Cindy and Jim end up having what may be the most important interview of their lives with Evette Onat and Doug Wert, to who they tell the entire story of Timothy, including all the good and the bad of their parenting, they hoping to convey the underlying reason for Timothy being in their lives.—Huggo
More than anything in the world, the loving couple of Cindy and Jim Green want to have a child. Distraught, after finding out that they are unable to conceive, Cindy and Jim spend an entire evening writing down all the desirable traits and qualities they want in their child, and without a second thought, they decide to bury their wishes in the garden. Then, on a stormy night, the most unexpected thing happens, and much to Jim and Cindy's surprise, a mud-covered boy appears in their kitchen out of thin air: his name is Timothy, and he claims to be their ten-year-old son. Could Timothy be, indeed, the embodiment of Cindy and Jim's fervent desires? Do fascinating things happen just when you least expect it?—Nick Riganas
