Young Sir Robert (Robin) Wakefield, badgered by his spinster aunts and a disagreeable tutor, takes his puppy, Ruff, and runs away to London and finds himself in the crowd milling around the Theatre where one of Mr. Shakespeare's plays was being presented. Robin goes home with the great actor, John Heminges, to the suburban cottage where Mrs. Heminges and the Heminges children soon make him feel at home. More than that, Robin learns to play small parts, to make himself generally useful around the theatre. With many adventures the winter turns out to be a wonderful one.