Rhoda—a schoolgirl of seventeen—and her mother find themselves dispossessed by a distant cousin, and her fierce resentment centres around Rosamund, the girl whom this cousin is to marry, and upon whom Rhoda looks as an interloper and usurper.

Rhoda returns to school—a wonderful school, where the girls wear boots and breeches for their work, and learn to garden and care for animals, to drive and look after a car, as well as the more usual school pursuits. Rhoda and her friends are delighted with the life, but Rhoda makes a startling discovery.

The intrigues and the family feud run throughout the story, but after exciting events and hard-won victories the end comes on a note of reconciliation and happiness.