 It is about a widowed Victorian era professor, Algernon Aisling, his two daughters, Miranda and Cassandra, and their adventure on a ship called the "Basset".Miranda is sixteen and concerned with being sensible, while Cassandra, nine years and eleven months, likes and believes in magical things.Miranda is outnumbered in this family, because Professor Aisling lectures on mythology and legends at his university, and believes in mysterious and magical things too.