Sisters Rose and Lila, ages 10 and 8, are spending the year with their grandmother (who runs a doll hospital) while their parents are working overseas. Their grandmother has a special power to communicate with dolls and to tell their stories. In this book, the girls' grandmother is restoring a Parisian dollhouse from the 1890s which will be placed in a dollhouse museum. In the process of helping their grandmother with the restoration, Rose and Lila learn the story of the special relationship between the dollhouse people and a student at the boarding school where the house was kept.