"Miss Penelope Lumley embarks on an investigation into the mysteries surrounding the Incorrigible children, Lord Ashton, the forests of Ashton Place, and her own past"--

Fifteen-year-old Miss Penelope Lumley, a governess trained at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, takes the three Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place to London, England, and learns they are under a curse.

Unhappy Penelope Lumley is trapped in unhappy Plinkst! Even the beets for which Plinkst is inexplicably famous fail to grow in this utterly miserable Russian village. Penelope anxiously counts the days and wonders how she will ever get back to England in time to save all the Ashtons--who, she now knows, include herself and the Incorrigible children, although their precise location on the family tree is still a mystery--from their accursèd fate. Her...

Miss Penelope Lumley assuages the disappointments of her sixteenth birthday by accepting an invitation to speak at her former school, the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, which will be closed if she cannot prove the academic progress of her incorrigible charges.