Nancy's four choice rose brushes have been stolen. The thief is Joan Fenimore a little girl in a faded pink dress. Her home is a cottage (greatly in need of repair) in a poor section of the city. Joan only took the bushes due to the bad influence of a neighbor boy. Joan's mother is a sweet-faced woman with lines of deep suffering in her forehead.
There is hope for the Fenimores. Mrs. Fenimore's sister Floriana had inherited a castle from her wealthy fiance, but she mysteriously had disappeared. Florianna now has only three weeks left to claim the property.
Enter Nancy, with assistance from Bess and George. They visit the crumbling castle and find several clues, including an imprint of Florianna's dancing shoe, which will prove her identity. (An imposter had rather large feet--"size eight at least.") Florianna had disappeared when she was crippled in a car accident and retired to a flower farm.
In addition, Nancy helps find whelks with dye and a spring with "unusually beneficial qualities, even curative effects in bone disorders." With income pouring in, Floriana, Joan, and her mother move to the castle along with underprivileged crippled children.
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