Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis are three contented children living a comfortable life in the city, until one evening their father is suddenly taken away, and everything changes. With little money and no explanation the children are allowed to understand, their mother moves them to a small cottage in the Yorkshire countryside, beside a railway line. There the trains, the station, and the kindly folk who work the line become the heart of their new world, full of waves, friendships, and small adventures, while the quiet mystery of their father's absence lingers beneath it all. Nesbit's warm 1906 classic begins where one life ends and another, unexpectedly, opens.