11-year-old Nim lives on a 'South Asia Sea' island with her scientist father Jack, Selkie the Sea lion, Fred the Bearded Dragon, Chica the Turtle and Galileo the Pelican. After he disappears on an expedition (ship-wrecked), Nim, having fended off a boat load of obnoxious tourists (not quite sure how they got there), e-mails her favourite author, Alex Rover, writer of the Alex Rover children's adventure books and asks her for help. The obsessively shy and agoraphobic author eventually agrees and find out more...

It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...