Rebecca and Jack have been sent to stay with their aunt Caroline—someone they have never met, and barely heard of. Mum has been sent away, to recover, and Rebecca and Jack are in a new town, living with someone who would clearly prefer not to know them. When Caroline says one room is strictly out of bounds, she little realizes that this is a temptation too great for Jack to resist. Of course he breaks one of the china figurines so carefully harbored there, and they must find a way to replace it, and somehow placate this oddly hostile relative.