Ruby Rogers wants to be a gangster when she grows up. Not a horrid violent one, obviously - more a kind of female Robin Hood living in the treetops, preferably with a troupe of monkeys, a species Ruby adores. Her human family consists of a teasing eccentric older brother Joe, a Geography teacher father who has no sense of direction, and a midwife mum who regularly falls asleep on the sofa instead of providing lavish suppers. Ruby's best friend Yasmin is a Muslim, though not so you'd notice. Yasmin loves dolls and clothes and is shrewd about relationships. She and Ruby have a fiery but devoted friendship and through Yasmin's older sister Zerrin, Ruby gets to know Holly Helvellyn, Gothic eccentric and Ruby's ultimate role model.