So after Aricibald Peregrine Edmund (Ape for short) Spring-Russell's bossy wife takes off, he moves his four poster bed into the kitchen, eats his favorite foods, and buys twelve big beautiful brown hens. He loves brown eggs, and is rather fond of the birds too, so he spreads sawdust on the floor, and sets up perches, nest boxes, and feeding troughs in his living room. Things only get better when Ape hires Joe and his son Jake. They are Romanies, (more commonly known as Gypsies) whose animal expertise proves invaluable when Ape gets rabbits and guinea pigs for his dining room, canaries for his music room, a noisy talking parrot named Uncle Bob for his kitchen (and his shoulder), a donkey foal for this stable, and Swift, his puppy. After one too many baby rabbits, Joe convinces to Ape give most his pets away. Ape doesn't mind though, because his new friends have thrown him the first birthday party in years (the dog is his present) and he's got them to celebrate the British holiday, Guy Fawkes' Night. Unfortunately, one firework goes astray during the festivities and burns Ape's great house to the ground. Although Ape mourns the loss of his ancestral home, it's really his friends and his animals that matter now. And he still has his money. So he buys a caravan (actually a Land Rover) of his own, hooks it up to his silver Rolls-Royce and leaves (dog, parrot, rabbit, guinea pigs and donkey in tow) with his new Gypsy family. Because home is now where they are.