Livia is a bored and frustrated Burmese cat living in a New York City high rise apartment. Her entire world consists of two humans who are loving and kind but are usually gone all day, leaving Livia to gaze wistfully from the balcony. She has a only one fellow feline friend across the way for company and her only other pastime is to look down to the buzzing life many stories below. She thinks the cars whizzing about are mice and wants to chase them.
One day she has her chance! A plumber comes to fix a problem under the sink and, when he leaves, she manages to get out the door with him and eventually reaches her goal and ends up on the street below.
There she finds a terrifying world of huge rushing automobiles, insensitive people hurrying about and, in a dark alley, very large rats and even meaner stray cat. Upon discovering how rough the world outside can be, Livia wants only to get back to the security of her apartment but has no idea how to do that.
This book is geared at ages eight through twelve. It is fully illustrated with hand-painted pictures and is also translated into Spanish which the reader can see by flipping the book over and upside down.