Josie Peters is number one in her class. The class is going on a field trip, but she thinks she cannot go because her family is too poor to pay for it. Her school has a fund for situations like that, but her father will not accept any charity and insists that he will get the money himself. The night before the field trip Ralph Peel, Len Peter's employer, is mugged and the proceeds of the day are stolen. Josie also has a crush on her teacher Roger Gifford, and when her father reads about it in her diary he believes that her fantasies about him are true. The ventriloquist Ernie Dobson has died and left his dummy Enoch to David, who treats the dummy like a real person and drives Vernon Scripps mad.

Alex Robinson stays at the Aidensfield Arms while he tries to purchase land. But Ian Sinclair has beaten him to it and closed the deal with a couple of potential sellers. Lord Ashfordly has invited Robinson to dinner and he asks Gina to accompany him. His car has a flat tire and they have to go in hers. Late in the evening she feels bad and has to go home. The next morning she wakes up in her car only a couple of hundred yards from Ashfordly Hall. The previous evening Sinclair is seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident, and everything suggests that Gina is responsible. Sylvia and Linda are singers in a band, and to ensure that nothing untoward happens their father hires Vernon Scripps to drive them to and fro when they have a gig. But the loud music soon gets too much for him and David has to take over. The two girls soon discover that David is a real push-over in the hands of young females.