Alice detests being turned into a proper English young lady. Longing for Africa and her parents she is desperately lonely - until she meets Bessie, the strange little scullery maid. Bessie doesn't belong here either. Really she is a changeling, a princess of the pagans - the sinister beings who live deep inside the strange mound in the garden. Bessie should be down there dancing, not polishing jelly-moulds in the kitchens...Alice knows all about evil spirits - she even managed to escape a witch once, in Africa. If anyone can make those pagans take poor Bessie back, she can...