Sian Llewellyn's house was on a street that overlooked the waterfront in the windy little town of Penhelig in Wales. Her doll family's house had for many years stood by the nursery window that faced out to sea.

A touch of sadness had invaded the lives of Sian's doll family—there was not a single male doll, except Curly, who was only a boy.

Captain Raleigh, the doll father, had disappeared among the sand dunes while on a picnic at the beach. And Thomas, the sailor doll, had gone across the sea to France just before he was to been married to Miss Charlotte. Curly was especially fond of Miss Charlotte and he felt it his duty as the only man of the household to try to find her a fiancé. The problem was how could a small boy doll cross the sea, find Thomas, and bring him back again to Penhelig?

Curly's chance meeting with Bernard, a lonely young French boy visiting Wales for the summer, gives him his opportunity, and he sets out on a daring adventure to bring Miss Charlotte's sailor "home from the sea."

Rumer Godden's doll stories are as unique in themselves as is each of her doll characters. In this story the lives of people and the lives of the dolls are interwoven—and when their destinies cross, each receives as much as he gives and no one remains quite the same as before.

Jean Primrose's delicate pastel illustrations add charm and distinction to Miss Godden's fine story-telling.

From the dust jacket