Ella Warrington, a lively, fiery-spirited ten year-old cockney girl who lives in Lambeth in the East end of London is left orphaned when her mother, Esther, dies shortly after the end of World War Two, having lost a bravely fought battle with cancer. The only person Ella believes she has left in the world is her beloved neighbour, Eric Donnelly, a school teacher who has been like a father to her since she was two years old. Eric Donnelly believes that he will automatically become Ella's guardian. However, two strangers attend her mother's funeral; the dour Harriet Rudge, who claims to be her Mother's cousin, and her corpulent husband Ronald Rudge. With a letter from the court confirming their legal guardianship of Ella, and despite her pleading to stay with her neighbour, they take her away from everything she knows and holds dear to live with them in their sprawling house, Yew Tree Manor, on the Romney Marsh in Kent, leaving Eric Donnelly feeling bereft and anguished over Ella's heartbreaking departure. It is immediately apparent that the Rudges are despicable characters and their intentions truly reprehensible when, having put Ella in the neglected attic room, originally the servants' quarters, damp and freezing in the Arctic conditions of the harshest winter in over a century, she quickly becomes subjected to their 'disciplines'. Facing extreme adversity and battling all the odds, Ella embarks on a treacherous journey to return to her home and her beloved Mr Donnelly.