Made for television as part of BBC4's Edwardian season of films, based on three stories of Saki, "The Storyteller", "The Lumber Room" and "Sredni Vashtar", each one telling a cruelly funny tale of children using their imagination to overcome their repressed upbringing. While traveling on a train, a bachelor finds himself with a stiff, elderly woman and her three young wards. They are bored and, as such, unbearable company as they shuffle, sing and generally make noise and distraction. The attempt by the woman to tell the children a story backfires spectacularly and is met with general polite derision. So the bachelor himself decides to try - much to the stuffy amusement of the woman, who assumes that if she cannot entertain them then surely this bachelor will have no hope. The opening lines suggest that she is correct - however the bachelor goes on to fire their imagination much more.