Flora Belle Buckman is ten years old and a self-declared cynic. She has read so many comic books — especially the dramatic adventures of a superhero called Incandesto — that she has stopped expecting good things to happen in real life. She believes the worst, trusts little, and keeps her heart carefully guarded. Then something extraordinary happens. Next door, Flora's neighbour Mrs. Tickham is given a powerful new vacuum cleaner. While cleaning the garden, the machine accidentally sucks up a squirrel. Flora, watching from her window, races outside. The squirrel is limp, scrawny, and half-bald, and at first it seems certain that he is dead. But Flora refuses to simply stand by. She kneels down and works to revive the little creature — and, miraculously, he comes back to life. What happens next astonishes even a cynic like Flora: the squirrel lifts the heavy vacuum cleaner clean over his head. He has been changed. He is strong, he can fly, and before long he will even learn to type. Flora names him Ulysses, after the vacuum cleaner that nearly killed him. A superhero has been born — and a cynic has, against all her expectations, found something to believe in.