[1] The story opens with an elderly man visiting Mrs. Allen, a widow who lives with her three children Lucy, Jamie and her baby Benjamin, in Camden Town, London.

One day, Lucy is walking in the garden to explore and to pick flowers when she hears the ghosts calling her name.

It turns out their uncle is trying to "get rid of them", or murder them, and they are travelling forwards in time in order to get help.

By drinking an infusion of various leaves, made from a recipe that Sara provides, Lucy and Jamie go back in time with the ghosts to meet Mrs. Wickens, the housekeeper and mother to Bella who is to marry Sara and Georgie's guardian, and Tom, the gardener's boy.

It turns out Sara married Tom (the gardener boy) and emigrated to America, whilst Georgie moved to Camden Town.