Shy, bespectacled Anna is certain that Ellie Wilson will do something dreadful on the school trip to Bath. But how can she explain to her sensible mother that she's scared of Ellie? And she does want to see the statue of Minerva at the Roman baths, for her history project. Anna already knows in her mind how the beautiful goddess looks.

But when something dreadful does happen, Anna is surprised to find that neither it, nor Minerva, nor Ellie, is quite as she had imagined.