"When Laurette is left an orphan and taken to live with her rich, surly guardian, Count Schillinger, the one really precious possession that she takes with her is a white china peacock that belonged to her scientist father. At her new home there is a real white peacock who preens himself on the terrace, as well as everything else, ponies, party frocks, pearl necklaces, that the Count can think of to spoil her with. Laurette finds her guardian a fierce, lonely man, with only one great desire in life. This is to discover a mysterious formula that would make him, as he tells her, 'master of the world'. It is only gradually that Laurette discovers how her precious white peacock could help him in his search. What happens when she reveals her secret, how she is involved with plots about which she never guessed, and how she is helped and befriended by some of the delightful characters who come into earlier books about The Stormy Petrel, makes another wonderful story set in Violet Needham's unique, romantic world of make-believe."