Katy, twelve years old, was the eldest of the Carr children. Dr Carr's sister, Aunt Izzie, looked after them after their mother had died, for the doctor, a dear, kind and sympathetic man, was also a busy one.

'Katy's days flew like the wind, for when she wasn't studying lessons, or sewing and darning with Aunt Izzie, which she hated extremely, there were always so many delightful schemes rioting in her brains that all she wished for was ten pairs of hands to carry them out. She was fond of dreaming of the time when something she had done would make her famous.

'Katy had not really made up her mind what this wonderful thing was to be: but while thinking about it she often forgot to learn a lesson, or to lace her boots, and then she had a bad mark or a scolding from Aunt Izzie. At such times she consoled herself with planning how, by and by, she would be beautiful and beloved and amiable as an angel.'

The book tells of these years in Katy's life: of the happy family whose fun was always inspired by the irrepressible Katy; of her varied, scrapes, the resolutions she made, the things she did. But one of these scrapes brought misfortune, for she hurt her back and found herself unable to run about any more. She had to learn the lesson, so hard for youth, of patience. And so the reader hears how when Aunt Izzie died Katy took her place and ran the home from her wheelchair and how these years taught her many lessons until the great day when her health was completely restored.

From the dust jacket of the Dent and Dutton Children's Illustrated Classics edition