Joe and Hannah find a box of buttons in their barn. Mrs Underhill, the old lady who collected them over many years, tells the children that every button tells a story. The Dorset button is a tale of smuggling on the south coast and the Navajo button tells of an encounter with a mountain lion in Arizona. The Icelandic button involves some children in a desperate race against time to warn their neighbours who are in danger of being buried under icy slurry from a volcanic eruption. There is a scrimshaw button from whaling days in New England and a Tudor button involved in an encounter with a poacher. In the end the children have their own adventure attempting to rescue a young deer trapped in a storm. Their own button collection begins.
