World War II is over, her father is home safe and Annie McLeod's parents are building a new life. But it's not quite the life this 12 year- old wants. Most of their beautiful house on the Scotland's Fife coast is filled with paying summer guests and Annie has just had to move schools again. But when the polio epidemic strikes and Annie is asked to share her tiny attic room with her six-year-old cousin, Moira, it is almost too much to bear.

In an effort to ease her frustrations Annie sneaks into her father's workshop to build a toy for Moira and accidentally breaks one of his...