This story, rewritten 20 years after its original publication, concerns a divided family set in the years leading up to World War I and is based on the childhood of Sir Brian Fairfax-Lucy at Charlecote, Warwickshire. It traces the growth of four children who could easily be thought to lead a privileged life. But their father practised rigid economies and the children had less to eat than the servants and wore the shabbiest clothes. As the years passed confrontation became inevitable.