Rain ... all day, every day. The children trapped indoors become quarrelsome. Barbara's solution is simple, if eccentric. But dealing with Miss Sullivan, the old-fashioned governess, is not so easy.

Barbara accepts a job in isolated Thorpeness with two children who have just returned from India without their parents. Their mother was once a famous music-hall star. But what has happened to her since? It seems that no one is very keen for Barbara to know.