"It's not what you have but what you do with it that counts." This is the story of how that philosophy played out in the life of Penny Burford, an ordinary housewife who leaves an extraordinary legacy.

Small Change is about a devoted housewife, Penny Burford, who scoops up her husband Roy's loose change and eventually puts together a substantial bank account. She uses the money for secret charities, of which the phlegmatic Roy learns only upon Penny's death. Why Penny did what she did the way she did it then becomes the story, and the reader must return to Roy and Penny's childhoods to understand it fully.

Yandell is sentimental but not syrupy: Roy and Penny's marriage is realistically drawn, and the points she makes about the nature of charity are well taken. With something as small as a furtive trip to a fast-food restaurant in a Georgia town, she finds that small change can eventually lead to big changes.

Thirty-four years later, Roy finds a check for $1,500 drawn on an account bearing only Penny's name. He is bewildered, wondering how his wife, who has never worked outside their home in her entire life, managed to come by so much money. His quest to unravel this mystery leads him to other discoveries about the woman he thought he knew so well. Roy learns just how many lives Penny has touched and just how well his wife had known his secrets all those years—and her example shows him how to begin life anew.

Small Change is a deceptively simple story that explores the human condition in a rich emotional portrait. A remarkable tale of an ordinary housewife who leaves an extraordinary legacy, it reminds us of the true spirit of charity, the effects of poverty, and the tragic self-silencing that limits the richness of far too many women's lives.