Sarah and Matilda are travelling and find themselves staying at the only remote boarding house they can find. The room and house are old-fashioned, and so is the landlady, who seems to have a fixation on running a house for 'decent girls'. Soon, the girls test her patience and they soon find out how the landlady's late husband would have dealt with their insolence, smoking and noise. The landlady continues this work, of traditional bottom-smacking and rules, and the girls are punished side by side.