When ship's fireman Peter McCabe walks out on his long-suffering wife, he leaves her impoverished, with two young daughters and a boy born soon after his departure. After an absence of fourteen years McCabe returns, sacked and humiliated, trailing trouble in his wake.

Mr. Ferber is an old man living in Pendragon Castle along with his two grandchildren Bobby and Paddy who find a small dragon to heat their castle. The dragon helps them to find hidden treasure in the castle.

A group of children are evacuated during world war two into the care of an alcoholic woman.

Following her father's death, a teenage heiress moves in with her guardian uncle who is broke and schemes to murder his niece for her vast inheritance.