 The novel opens in Paris, early in the morning, as eleven-year-old Henrietta Mountjoy, accompanied by Miss Naomi Fisher, travels via taxi to the house of Mme Fisher, an elderly and sickly lady who for years has taken in well-off girls for a season.Henrietta is travelling to Menton, in the south of France, to spend time with her grandmother, Mrs. Arbuthnot.Mme Fisher tells Henrietta that she will be spending her day with Leopold, a nine-year-old boy who is supposed to meet his mother there for the first time; Miss Fisher asks Henrietta to "be a little considerate with Leopold", and "to ask Leopold nothing".