Angelina finds a small pearl button in Mama’s jewellery box while the family is getting ready for her baby brother Jack’s christening. She hears her parents’ wedding story and how Mama almost lost the button from her glove. Angelina promises to keep the button safe if Mama lets her look after it. So starts her collection of ‘yesterday things’. She soon has keepsakes from Grandma Sue, Nonna Francesca and Zia Lucia.  Everyone in Angelina’s extended Italian/English/Australian family has a story to tell and a special memento of the past for her. Daddy gives her a journal to write down all the stories so they won’t be forgotten. Mama asks: ‘What will you do with all your yesterday things?’ Angelina doesn’t know. When her teacher announces there will be a Pioneers Day fancy-dress parade, excitement buzzes around the classroom. What will they be? Bush rangers, soldiers and settlers are among the suggestions. Angelina has another idea. She asks Mama to make a dress from her yesterday things and soon an ordinary everyday dress has been transformed into something special. Angelina’s yesterday dress inspires her teacher to set the whole class a project to collect their own family stories to create a yesterday book to share.