"Shefirst, a square opening, about eight inches wide, in the loweststep...finally she saw that there was a walnut shell, or half one,outside the nearest door...she went to look at the shell—but looked withthe greatest astonishment. There was a baby in it."Soten-year-old Maria, orphaned mistress of Malplaquet, discovers thesecret of her deteriorating on a deserted island at its far corner, inthe temple long ago nicknamed Mistress Masham's Repose, live an entirecommunity of people—"The People," as they call themselves—all onlyinches tall. With the help of her only friend—the absurdly eruditeProfessor—Maria soon learns that this settlement is no less than thekingdom of Lilliput (first seen in Gulliver's Travels ) in exile. Safelyhidden for centuries, the Lilliputians are at first endangered byMaria's well-meaning but clumsy attempts to make their lives easier, buttheir situation grows truly ominous when they are discovered by Maria'sgreedy guardians, who look at The People and see only a bundle ofmoney.