Growing up on a post-World War I Scottish estate, 10-year-old Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman) narrates the story of his sometimes-eccentric family, which includes a strong-disciplinarian grandmother (Rosemary Harris) and a moss farmer and would-be inventor father (Colin Firth). Turmoil ensues when the boy's uncle (Malcolm MacDowell) arrives with his French maid (Irene Jacob). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio co-stars.