Jane Grey's new-found step-grandmother Esmeralda was a perfect darling, and Jane loved her dearly even before she solved all her problems for her. For Jane had been hunting for a place for her family to live and work in, and Esmeralda's offer of a house in the beautiful Otago district of New Zealand, where Jane and her mother could paint pictures and sell them to tourists, exceeded anything they could possibly have hoped to find. And it was even nicer that it would enable Jane to lend a helping hand to Esmeralda too. So she just couldn't see why Esmeralda's grim neighbour, Broderic Adair, should be so disagreeable about everything, and so suspicious of everything Jane did . . .