Eggleston Hall Finishing School is preparing to entertain royalty for the first time in its history, and the teachers want their girls to make a good impression on the visiting prince — a dashing Italian from Venice. There's no margin for error when, after last week's appalling lapse in standards, Ms Harbord announces a zero-tolerance policy on bad behaviour. But, when the four surviving ladettes are forced to wear a body harness to improve their deportment, one of them decides that enough is enough. Tough mine-worker, Sarah has fought hard to earn her place as an equal in a man's world, and she's not about to curtsey to anyone — not even a prince. The show must go on, and the girls have just days to prepare for a wildly ambitious event — a masked ball in honour of their royal visitor. And, as if that weren't enough, the girls must also contend with some amorous bachelors who will be staying over the night of the ball. Whether it's the prospect of a genuine Italian prince or of the return of the now familiar bachelors, the sausage-making lesson provokes a very unladylike response in the girls.