The book starts out with Judy and her friends visiting an antique store/tea room. In the shop Judy sees a vase in the shape of a tree and decides she must have it. She plans on inquiring about the price on the way out but first the group wants to eat.
They go into the attached tearoom and enjoy eating and dancing to the player piano. Before long another boy and girl arrive but only the girl stays. She continues to keep the piano playing constantly and after dancing with her, Horace says the girl seemed scared. Soon her companion reappears and rushes her out.
After not long the group begins to head back to the car but as they re-enter the antique shop they find many of the items have been removed, including Judy's vase. Although Judy suspects a robbery the others believe someone must have come in and made a large purchase. However they soon find that Arthur's car has also disappeared.
They quickly call the police and Judy's father who arrive one after the other. Seeing the tire tracks of Arthur's car lead down a road that has a broken bridge, Judy's group heads down this road in Dr. Bolton's car, while the police go searching down a road that leads out of town.
The road is dark, narrow, and winding but after awhile headlights begin approaching them and they quickly recognize Arthur's car. It is occupied by four men as well as the boy and girl from the tearoom. When the car tries to force it's way past them, Judy and her friends get out of Dr. Bolton's car and form a human chain blocking the road. Unfazed, the driver of the stolen car attempts to run them over but the girl occupant turns the wheel, sending them down a ledge into a gully where they crash into a tree.
The occupants of the car are fine except for the girl who is unconscious and bleeding profusely from her hand and head. While Dr. Bolton attends to her the other criminals take off in his car leaving them to walk back with the unconscious girl in their arms.
After a long night they manage to get home and make the girl comfortable in the Bolton's guest room. Judy and the Doctor try to inquire about the girl's identity but she claims to not know it or recall anything that has happened before the accident. She is given the nickname Honey due to her honey-colored hair and father and daughter try to help discover her identity while she continues to live with them.
After Peter's grandmother suffers a stroke Dr. Bolton is called to the Dobb's home and brings his wife and Judy to help. This leaves Honey home alone but she insists she will be fine. When the Bolton's arrive home an hour later they find Honey missing. Worried, Judy decides to wait up on the porch for her to return. The hour is late and Judy dozes off but awakes to Honey's voice speaking to a boy named Mike. Mike has handed Honey a package which she brings inside.
Once inside Judy is settling for bed when the mysterious sound of chimes ring out. No one knows where the sound has come from. In the next few days the chimes are heard again; while Judy is in the living room and several times in Honey's room.
A brain specialist is in town from New York and Dr. Bolton invites him to dinner so that he can secretly study Honey to see if she genuinely has amnesia, which Dr. Bolton doubts. The specialist happens to notice that Honey has a heart shaped thumbprint similar to a baby he had seen 16 years ago. Judy manages to have all the dinner guest take impressions of their thumbprints under the ruse of a fun party activity but really so the specialist can compare it with the print in his files of the baby.
During dinner Police Chief Kelly shows up to inform Dr. Bolton that his stolen car was located in New York outside of a boarding house. Judy tasks the specialist's daughter, Pauline, with finding out the names of the people in the boarding house.
While Mrs. Dobbs is still bedridden Judy and Honey pay her a visit. She takes a liking to Honey and suggests she visit her while Judy is at school, which she begins doing everyday. When Mrs. Dobb's condition worsens she begins to think Honey is her deceased daughter Grace and wants her by her side constantly.
In the last book we learned that Grace, Peter's mother, ran away from home to marry Vine Thompson's step-son, James. They had two children; Peter and a daughter also named Grace. While away from home James was killed in an automobile accident. Grace, unaware of his death, wrote continuously to him asking for him to come home or send money as the family was starving and about to be kicked out of their New York boarding house. These letters unanswered, Grace eventually passed away. Vine Thompson was then notified by the boarding house landlord, Mrs. Vincenzo, of her death and that baby Grace was dying and Peter had been taken to an orphanage. Vine told the Dobbs about Grace's passing and Peter being in the orphanage but made no mention of baby Grace. Believing Peter to be the only child the Dobbs went to New York and brought him home.
While Honey stays at the Dobbs Judy cleans her room and discovers floor nails in the waste paper basket. After inspecting the floor she finds where the nails were removed and upon lifting the floorboards discovers the tree vase from the antique store hidden underneath. Upon lifting it the mysterious chimes ring forth from it.
Judy feels angry and hurt. She now believes Honey is a liar and thief and has been using the Bolton's as a way to hide from the police. She tells all this to her family and Peter who all insist Judy wait until Honey has a chance to explain herself.
While Judy waits a letter from Pauline arrives. Pauline had gone to the boarding house and managed to get the names of the people there. Turns out it is Mrs. Vincenzo and she has two missing children; Rose and Michael. When Honey arrives soon after this discovery Judy shows her the letter. The Bolton's and Peter all gather and give Honey the chance to explain herself.
Honey confesses that she is Rose Vincenzo and she participated in robbing the antique store with her brothers. She explains how she had no choice but to participate in this and many other crimes as she, and her little brother Mike, were victims of severe abuse at the hands of the other Vincenzos. Honey explains how she grew up uncared for in a criminal home with only the love of her little brother that she raised while still a child herself. She explains that crashing Arthur's car was not only an attempt to save Judy and her friends lives but also to kill herself and Mike as a way to free them from the abuse. To her the Bolton's taking her in was a rebirth, a chance for a new and honest life surrounded by people who cared about her. She also knew she had to keep her identity secret to protect Mike.
On the night Honey had gone missing she had been meeting up with Mike. Worried about her Mike had tracked her down with only the knowledge that a doctor had been at the scene of the crash. Mike himself had escaped from the Vincenzo's and now had a job and home on a farm. He gave Honey the vase, which he had escaped his brothers with, as a get well soon present.
With this information the Bolton's promise not to send Honey back to New York and to keep her and Mike's names quiet when they report the Vincenzo's to the police. Honey is given the choice to live with the Bolton's or the Dobbs and she chooses both so that she can help out both households.
Peter and Honey go over Grace's old letters, the ones discovered in the last book, and are able to confirm that Honey's mother, Mrs. Vincenzo, was Grace's landlord. Honey offers to contact her to try and find out the whereabouts of Peter's sister's resting place as they believe she had passed away as a baby. But this is unnecessary as a message soon arrives from New York. Honey's thumbprint has been compared with the heart shaped thumbprint of the baby and it was a match, reveling that Honey is actually Grace Thompson, Peter's lost sister. With this new information Honey moves in with the Dobbs.
The only loose end is the tree vase which needs to be returned to the antique store. As Dr. Bolton drives the girls there they spot Mike herding cows on a farm. They stop and Honey tells him of her discovered identity but says that Mike will always be her brother. He insists he also has a happy new life and will never go back to the Vincenzo's. After returning the vase, the store owner offers it as a reward to Judy who happily accepts it and that is end of the mystery.
- At the beginning of the book it mentions that Peter, Horace, and Donald all attend the same college and that Arthur has already graduated college for architecture. I was surprised by this as I always imagined Arthur to be the youngest of the boys and Peter to be the oldest, with Horace falling in-between the two. I don't know their ages except that they're all over 18. Judy, Lois, and Lorraine are all 15 and if Arthur and Horace were not brothers to two of the girls I would find the age differences uncomfortable for their friend group.
- I always find antique stores in old media fascinating. I've been in my fair share of antique stores and the items usually there did not even exist when this book was written. It makes me wonder what items you saw in these stores back then. I also love how the boys look at the antique weapons while the girls look at the pretty things. Very realistic to my experiences.
- Margaret Sutton had said that if the series had continued Horace and Honey's marriage to each other would have been in one of the books therefore I consider their marriage canon. With that it mind I found their meeting really cute. While in the tearoom everyone is dancing except Horace who is gazing over at Honey. He asks Judy if she thinks it would be appropriate for him to go ask her to dance. He's clearly interested in her from the first time he sees her and I think that is cute.
- The Vincenzo's are one of the many, many, many examples of anti-Italianism that was rampant in the U.S. at the time. Italians, specifically Sicilians, faced a lot of discrimination whether they were immigrants or Italian Americans. They were considered criminals by nature, something shown in this book by the repeated insistence that Honey does not have physical features of a criminal. The last book also focuses on Vine Thompson not being a blood relative of Peters as ignorant people believed criminality was passed through blood. It's unfortunate that many people in modern times are unaware of this bigotry and some even deny it ever happen. But books with stereotypes like these, which are a dime a dozen, are loud proof that it not only existed but was being taught to children.
- When I had originally read this book I was annoyed by Honey's coincidental relation to Peter, especially after Peter's coincidental relation to Vine in the last book. It still annoys me if I think too much about it but now I see it as setting up the foundation for the series. The first three books really lay the groundwork for everything. We meet and have time to get familiar with all the characters, from Judy and her friends to her grandparents and the Dobbs, as well as get familiar with Farringdon and the Bolton house. We also learn how all the characters interact with each other such as the Arthur-Lorraine-Judy love triangle. With these books done it feel like now we actually start the series in the next book.
Overall it was good. It moves well and like I've said before, Sutton books have detailed plots that twist around each other but are still very easy to understand. My only complaint is that the cats could have been in it more.
