On her seventeenth birthday, the apprentice witch Meg learns that she only has one year left to live. Her teacher, the long-lived witch Faust, explains that the only way to undo the death curse is to collect tears of joy and grow the seed of life. To find them, Meg will have to leave the sheltered life shes always known and head out into the world. There will be meetings, partings, and friendships aplenty, and of course many tears. Meg will learn the most important lessons for a witch are bright, sweet, and somewhat heart wrenching. nOn Megs seventeenth birthday, she learns that she only has one year left to live. Her mentor--the Eternal Witch, Faust--explains that she is cursed and the only way to save herself is to grow a seed of life using one thousand tears of joy. Of course, such tears arent easy to come by. As Meg begins her quest, she finds herself drawn into the lives of her friends and neighbors in ways she never imagined. By sharing their burdens and using her magic to comfort them, she learns how precious those moments of connection can be even in the face of death.