Five children, on vacation in the mountains, are trapped inside a lonely cottage by a landslide.

While they are asleep, earth covers the roof and windows of the house, cutting them off from the outside world. When they wake to complete darkness, they cannot understand what has happened.

They stumble around, feeling for the light switch that doesn't work, finding their way around furniture, testing by taste and smell the contents of the kitchen cupboard. The only sound is that of the cuckoo clock which tells them the time, hour by hour.

Twelve precious days of their Christmas vacation are gone before Laurent, the oldest boy and the one in charge of the party, invents a way of sending out signals for help.

The rescue of the children is the exciting climax to this most original adventure story, which is translated from the French by Margaret Morgan.

From the dust jacket