A young widow from Boston named Margret Carey and her three children Nancy, Gilly, and Peter soon realize that their financial status is quickly dropping and they are forced to move. The dramatic, yet kind-hearted, Nancy, the eldest, inquires the small town of Beulah, Maine about their large, yellow house, a house the family had admired on their trips there. Upon the sale of their family's treasured piano ("Flitterin"), Nancy reveals that the house is vacant and the family quickly decides to relocate to the country ("Beautiful Beulah").