Little Vera, whose father works at the British Museum, somehow ends up with a collection of (male) ethnic dolls, in addition to her favorite, Lily. Her cousin Elsa is sceptical of the value of these dolls (Elsa's dolls are "real darlings... pretty, smart dolls") but Vera finds their "queer dresses and ... yellow or dark faces" an invitation to curiosity about foreign lands. Her collection includes:

• Chutney, an Indian juggler, "queerest" of all but authoritative
• Sambo, an African with gold earrings, dressed in a shirt and shorts
• Kem, a somber (ancient) Egyptian whose name means "black"
• Chang, a Chinese with a pigtail
• Togo, a Japanese ("a real Jap name," that of Admiral Togo, the Japanese victor in the Russo-Japanese war, giving the text an approximate date)
• --and of course the English girl doll Lily, who looks to Vera like her own mother, and who is the unquestioned favorite.

In the story, Vera accidentally breaks Lily and then apparently faints for a moment. Now her dolls surround her, having grown to human size, and provide her with a large hat, a blue umbrella, and a Gladstone bag which serves them all as a "flying trunk" to visit their native lands. They travel to China where they see the Great Wall and Pekin, to Japan where they fly kites (see illustration), to Delhi for a Durbar and show of magic tricks, to Africa to build sand-castles, admire wild animals, and then sail around Lake Victoria and finally down the Nile to see the Pyramids. When she awakens, Lily has been mended.

p. 15-16:
Kem... said... "Child of the Sage, Kem will show you the mystic marvels of--" He was about to say Egypt, but here the jolly little Jap, Togo, cried,--
    "Oh, I say, honourable Kem, stop it! Your gloomy old things will cause the honourable tears of the honourable little girl to flow once more."
    In Japan it is polite and proper to call people and things honourable, and Togo was trying to be very polite indeed; but for all that, Kem frowned so that Vera felt quite creepy and said: "Oh, please don't get cross."
    "Honourable little girl," cried Togo, "you shall come to Japan and fly kites with me, and have dinner sitting on the floor of a house with paper walls!"

p. 23-24:
Togo gave the word, and away they went across land and sea, and came down softly in a garden bright with cherry blossom. Togo took Vera into a house with paper walls; and when a saucy Jap boy poked his finger through the wall, and peeped through the hole, Togo sent for the police. Then he took Vera to see a Jap lady.
    "Okka-san" (that means "honourable mother"), cried he, "where are your honourable kites?" (Togo was always polite.)
    The lady gave him two beauties. Togo gave one to Vera, and they went out to fly them. The Jap lady went too, for she wanted to look at the little English girl....
    "Look over there .... That's our burning mountain. I'll take you there, and you shall look down into it."
    "No, that I won't," cried Vera in a great fright.

p. 28-29:
    "The source of the Nile is known to none," said Kem in a grave voice.
    "We know all about it now," said Togo; "and so you'll see if you follow this river." Togo was a wee bit cheeky at times.
    ...
    Then Kem smiled for once, and took Vera to the brink of the Nile and showed her the yellow water-lilies. "They are the lotus," said Kem. Next he brought her tea, and when she had drunk it, he turned to Togo and said, in a sad tone, "Now take her home, for you are of to-day, but my day is past."
    "Little girl," said Togo in a jolly voice, "It's for England now."