Four-year-old Maggie Hawthorne has long lived in a household where she is never truly accepted, suffering neglect and abuse at the hands of her biological mother, Pamela, her stepfather, Derek, and her older sister, Polly. By chance, she discovers a high-ranking royal medal left behind by her biological father—a clue that leads her to believe he is at the Royal War Citadel. Setting off alone in the dead of night, little Maggie infiltrates the heavily guarded citadel, determined to find the father she has never met: the Duke of Hawthorne, Basil Hawthorne, Grand Marshal of the Kingdom.
