Carrie, Tom, Em and Michael Fielding encounter unexpected adventures when they are sent to live with their uncle and aunt after their house burns down.

While their father is away and their mother is in hospital, they are left in the care of Uncle Rudolph who is unused to children and decides to let them live at World's End, a ramshackle house which was once an inn. Free at last from interference from their relatives, they begin to add to their already sizable collection of animals - Carrie rescues John the horse, finds a wounded dog in the hayloft and even tries to save a monkey from a terrible fate...

This is the first book in the series about an extraordinary family and the adventures they have at World's End.