The March children, Robin, Ariel, and Fay, are given fairy names by their beloved parents and live a gilded existence until their parents' deaths. They go to live with their grandmother. When she passes away three years later, Ariel and Fay, aged 20 and 13 respectively, are taken into the guardianship of their mother's solicitor and his dull wife. When a letter from 25-year-old Robin arrives, proposing that the girls go to live with him in Colombo, Ariel and Fay set out by ship to join him and start a new life.
