Hugh Copplestone is an orphaned eleven-year-old boy living with his Aunt Alison (his dead mother's sister-in-law), who resents the duty of looking after him.

When he answers her back after she speaks disrespectfully of his dead father, Aunt Alison vindictively vows to have his pet dog Argos killed on the excuse that she has no duty of care to the animal and no intention of incurring the expense any longer.

There is an overnight stay of execution since all the farmhands who could have undertaken the task are away at a fair, which gives Hugh time to plan an escape.

Hugh is especially befriended by Jonathan Whyteleafe, the troupe's playwright and tumbler, who is visibly more intelligent than the rest although too poor to have afforded much education.

At a fair, Hugh is able to warn a friendly Quack doctor of the arrival of the law, and is later ceremoniously granted "Seisin of the Road" by a Tom O'Bedlam around the fair-folks' camp fire.