You met Alexy, Nurse, and the young pouncer, Mládà, in Shay The Brave.

Now journey with them to Dorp House, an orphanage in distant Indusdorp where Shay's da (manor lord of Oldenshire) sends Alexy to live. But Dorp House isn't the school Da thinks it is; it's a dismal tannery run by greedy Mr. Brisket and his towering one-eyed custodian, Crankhouser.

Can Nurse and the new headmaster Da hired-persnickety Mr. Perrytwinkle-save forty hungry orphans from a life of dirt and drudgery? Among them is Susanna, Alexy's new best friend, and her two brothers.

What can one voiceless lad like Alexy do?

Things grow worse when Crankhouser sells Mládà to Farmageddon to be put on display with other captured citizens of Ailouros, the forest kingdom ally of Oldenshire, back home.

And who, oh who, is that mysterious man in the prison tower who begs Alexy's help?

If only Shay's da or Talí (ruler of Ailouros and Mládà father) knew what was happening in Indusdorp!