Agnes Daily has run away from school and is searching for a camp of truants which has been running for a number of years. On discovery, Agnes finds that people of all ages are tutored here by the Professor, whose knowledge has a number of shortcomings. They are unaware that school is over and dare not return home for fear of being caught.
Nan Garland, a founding member of the camp, tells how her parents wanted her to marry a repulsive boy, the son of their wealthy friends, to escape debt. Instead she ran away and now lives in this haven.
[size=12]Some of the women have disguised themselves as men and return from working in the world. One of them, who works as the front-half of a rag-and-bone man's horse, tells Nan that she overheard a policeman discussing the warrant for someone who sounds just like Nan. Distraught, her and the Professor plan to tell the women they need to run away again.
Before they can do this, the camp is overrun by foolish policewomen who ineptly search the place, completely missing Nan. A cannier one amongst them takes Nan to one side and suggests they split the reward offered by her parents. She tells Nan that she is adopted and puts aside her plea of poverty on behalf of her parents as inadmissable evidence.
When the police leave, the women realise they need a plan to stay together. Rose comes up with a cunning idea. She is a twin and if she pretends to be Nan and takes the police off on a wild goose chase to her sister's house and slips away, they will hopefully arrest her sister (whose husband is a lawyer and will get her off).
Just as the plan is forming, the women are taken by surprise by the miraculous appearance of the most gorgeous boyband ever. The boyband dedicate their song to Nan and as per the plan, Rose steps up.
As truely astonishing events unfold, it becomes clear the boyband are not all they seem. Things become further complicated as both Nan's adoptive mother and her real mother turn up to battle over her, cheered on by the police...............[/size]
