Marigold Lesley is an imaginative young girl whose father died before she was born. She grew up at her paternal relatives' estate, Cloud of Spruce. Marigold's family includes her loving mother, steely Young Grandmother, shrewd Old Grandmother, her Uncle Klondike who is a former sailor, and her Aunt Marigold, a doctor who saved Marigold's life as a baby. Because of that, the Lesleys named Marigold after her Aunt, and Uncle Klondike married her.  The novel is an expansion of 4 linked short stories the author wrote and originally published in 1925.