"One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, all whales belong to the King, but twelve-year-old Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household and their guests--her sister, Flossie (known affectionately as "The Veg"); her brother Digby, the long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitkat, maidservant; and Taras, a hot-tempered visiting artist--build a theatre within the whale's skeleton. Cristabel is an orphan, mostly ignored by her feckless step-parents and brisk governesses. But within the Whalebone Theatre, she is fully at home and in charge, and her imagination comes to life. As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, chafing against expectations, World War II rears its head. She and Digby become British secret agents working undercover in Nazi-occupied France on separate missions--a more dangerous kind of play-acting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart." -- Provided by publisher.