Pre-teen Barney Branningham is a piano prodigy. His overprotective mother Gwen viciously and without proof blames neighbor and best friend Charles Royston's rascal junior sons David and Paul, who previously badgered the 'clumsy weirdo', for an honestly accidental tree-house fall after they finally became friends. Their older brother, dashing George, thus also sees his engagement to Barney's elder sister Alyassa compromised, so they each accept a job elsewhere in England.