Penelope Davis has agreed to take care of a friend's parrot while he's in the hospital, but the parrot has escaped from the cage and is waging war with Penelope's fifteen cats. Jennifer Gray saves the parrot from the cats (or vice versa), and takes the bird back to the parsonage. But Scaramouch (Scamp) is no ordinary parrot, and he has an interesting tale to tell of treachery and treasure. At first Jennifer ignores his chattering, but she soon decides that the bird may indeed know a secret. And that secret turns out to be both very, very valuable, and very, very deadly.