Born to an unbelieving American officer and a Canadian Catholic mother, twelve-year-old Lorette, known as Lady Bird to her father and friends, has been brought up in the care of nuns at a remote Canadian boarding school since the time of her mother's death seven years before. When the news of her father's death and her subsequent destitution reaches her, although the motherly nuns lack the means to keep Lady Bird much longer in their care they commend the situation to Divine Providence. The Sisters soon learn of the whereabouts of Lady Bird's grandmother, a stern, haughty old lady who had cut ties with her only son upon his marriage to a Catholic. When the grandmother sends for little Lady Bird, the Sisters have no choice but to send her to her natural guardian. With their parting injunction to let the light of her faith shine in her new home still ringing in her ears, Lady Bird enters upon a new life at Stony Crest, a grand Manor house regarded by many as more of a fortress than a home.