Fairacre pupil, Joseph Coggs, runs away from his dysfunctional family, and hides in the school, a move that brings about long needed changes, for the better, for his mother and his siblings. Miss Read is puzzled by the mysterious disappearance from home of her friend, Amy Garfield, and Mrs Pringle, the school’s cleaner, is unable to come to work because of a flare-up of pain in her leg.