Pixie and Molly are arch enemies, as different as sugar and spice. During the 1920s, they are forced to leave home to attend high school and their parents have decided they will board together. They travel hundreds of miles from the tiny settlement of Coolawong, deep in the Australian Outback, to a big country town where the girls will begin a new life with a new family.

It Pixie and Molly's first day at Willsford Ladies College but their new school is seemingly filled with nothing but mean teachers and insufferable classmates who want nothing to do with the new arrivals. When Marguerite, the daughter of the handsome French teacher arrives, Pixie is quick to befriend her and together with Molly, turns the tables on the school bully.