Widow, Hortense Horton goes on a mission to rescue all the neighborhood stray cats by taking them into her house one by one. She encounters her friends and neighbors in town for whom she knits garments as a gesture of good will. When a taxi cab accident happens in front of her house, she takes in the injured driver to wait for an ambulance. Once the police sergeant arrives on scene, he informs Hortense that she's in violation of the law by housing too many animals. Hortense is in a quandary as to what to do with them all. The following day, she heads to the bank to find out she was left savings bonds in her safe deposit box by her deceased husband, Horace. With that money and the help of the townspeople, she opens her own cat shelter. All the cats are saved.

The story is about friendship, compassion, and determination. Not to mention, some financial luck. Hortense is a strong woman who no matter her hardship, she finds love in her heart to open her home to the cold and hungry cats of her town of El Monte.