1907Jennie Trent has just turned twelve years old. She has three loves in her life - her family at the Station House, deep in the Kent countryside; Applemere, the mysterious great house nearby, to which so many important visitors come; and Jack Colby, her father's porter. Applemere guards its privacy fiercely, for the Fokingham family is closely connected to the royal family of Montevanya, a small but strategically important kingdom in the Balkans...