This first book in the series tells of Cuthbert's new friends, Anna and Ben, aged five and seven, as their grandmother presents them with the teddy bear. When the children visit Rievaulx Abbey, Cuthbert takes tem back in time to when the monastery was full of monks. The children have to foil robbers who are stealing from the treasury. During the course of their escapades, the children fall into a vat in the tannery. All the places mentioned in the book can still be seen today; the books are intended to bring the past alive for readers.