A young girl comes to live with her Aunt, Uncle, and cousins in the country. She is smart, spoiled, and supposedly sickly. Her cousin, Jancsi , can’t believe all of the trouble one girl can cause, and sometimes is roped into the chaos himself. The story is about Kate's and Jancsi's races on horseback across the plains, their fun at the fair, their trouble with the gypsies; about the shepherd who made wood carvings, and whose tales kept the children listening till sundown -- a colorful story of the customs and people of the great Hungarian plains.