When Sarah Dallas, for her invalid mother's sake, accepted a post as housekeeper in her uncle's house in the country in return for a home for them both, she did so with many doubts, for she could still remember the warning which her father had given her shortly before he died. "There's a mean, avaricious little soul hiding behind your Uncle Edwin's smile, my dear. He serves Mammon. Give him a wide berth."

To Sarah's mother, however, a spacious home in the country, free of financial worry, seemed a wonderful exchange for their cramped home in a London suburb.

This is the story of the prison Sarah found herself in; of her introduction to the Madison family who lived nearby at "Camerino", the lovely old house on Juniper Hill; and of how it became for Sarah a castle in the air, containing all the freedom and happiness from which she was debarred.