In the soft greens and glooms of Rainbow Valley, Anne’s children grow up alongside those of the Reverend John Meredith. With a distracted father and no mother, the Meredith children get into all kinds of trouble, until finally they form a Good-Conduct Club to help them bring themselves up and punish themselves when they do wrong. Unfortunately this only makes things worse. What they really need is a stepmother, but everyone knows stepmothers are wicked. Aren’t they?