Six-year-old Sarah loves to play with her birthday present, a kitten she named Birthday. Because Sarah is deaf, she cannot hear when Birthday meows. Neither can she hear his purr, but she can feel it rumbling like a tiny motor inside his throat.

Sarah's mother uses sign language to answer Sarah's many questions about her pet. As Sarah signs with her hands, another question is growing bigger and bigger in her mind. Will her mother know the answer?