Ruey Richardson, who with her brothers Roger and Roddy, was a ward of Joey and Jack Maynard, enters the Chalet School where she finds life very different from that in Croydon. She plays a large part in reintroducing lacrosse to the Chalet School, but finds she has an enemy ready-made in Francie Wilford.
Francie had hoped that since Margot Maynard has now lost her alter ego, Emerence Hope, they two might be friends. Margot does not see it in the same light and Francie, whose character is already slightly warped by her home circumstances, lets her jealousy of Ruey poison her school life. The pair are at daggers drawn most of the term, but towards the end a totally unexpected trifle breaks the deadlock. Explanations are made and they set out on a real friendship.
Besides this, Ruey and the boys have to face a hard trial in the take-off of their space-mad father on a flight to the moon – a business that seems likely to leave them fatherless. However, the end of the book finds her realising that she is not really alone in the world and that there are many people who are in far worse case than she is. In short, she is on the way to becoming a real Chaletian.
