At the stately home Penhallow Hall, where magical objects come to life, Polly and Rex find a new dog to wake - a toy dog on the nursery shelf. But to their surprise it seems this dog doesn't want to be woken! Polly learns that Skip was left behind by his owners, two children evacuated to Penhallow during World War II. But it's not just at Penhallow that adventures have a way of finding Polly. Her new friend at school, Lucy, is behaving oddly. When Lucy goes missing after school one day Polly has an idea where she may be hiding - but Polly needs Skip's help to find her.