An extraordinary English nanny blows in on the East Wind with her parrot-headed umbrella and magic carpetbag and introduces her charges, Jane and Michael, to some delightful people and experiences.
Prompted by a terrible flood, a seemingly unheroic group of little people sets out on a quest to restore an ancient treasure and make the valley of the Watercress safe again.
The inhabitants of Green Knowe become involved with black magic when a modern-day witch attempts to find books of witchcraft supposedly hidden in the old house by a mad seventeenth-century alchemist.