diff --git a/changes/ticket31189 b/changes/ticket31189
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..318941c794
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/ticket31189
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+  o Documentation:
+    - Correct the description of "GuardLifetime". Fixes bug 31189; bugfix on
+      0.3.0.1-alpha.
diff --git a/doc/tor.1.txt b/doc/tor.1.txt
index e8d0fd2cbd..6b81e19ba1 100644
--- a/doc/tor.1.txt
+++ b/doc/tor.1.txt
@@ -1468,10 +1468,9 @@ The following options are useful only for clients (that is, if
     default to 3 if the consensus parameter isn't set.  (Default: 0)
 
 [[GuardLifetime]] **GuardLifetime**  __N__ **days**|**weeks**|**months**::
-    If nonzero, and UseEntryGuards is set, minimum time to keep a guard before
-    picking a new one. If zero, we use the GuardLifetime parameter from the
-    consensus directory.  No value here may  be less than 1 month or greater
-    than 5 years; out-of-range values are clamped. (Default: 0)
+    If UseEntryGuards is set, minimum time to keep a guard on our guard list
+    before  picking a new one.  If less than one day, we use defaults from the
+    consensus directory.  (Default: 0)
 
 [[SafeSocks]] **SafeSocks** **0**|**1**::
     When this option is enabled, Tor will reject application connections that