after his mother's death, collin fenwick goes to live with his father's cousins, the wealthy, avaricious, and controlling verena talbo, and her compliant, earthy sister dolly. when a city slicker comes to town and convinces verena to market dolly's locally-famous tonic, dolly finally gets some backbone, refuses to divulge the formula, and heads for a tree house with collin and catherine, the loyal maid. verena, who has most of the town in her pocket, sics the law on the renegades. dolly, catherine, and collin find a supporter in a retired judge, charlie cool, who's attracted to dolly. will verena's venom win out? and what about that city slicker?