Fifteen-year-old Miss Penelope Lumley, a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is hired as governess to three young children who have been raised by wolves and must teach them to behave in a civilized manner quickly, in preparation for a Christmas ball.

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.