at the age of eight, jaffy brown encounters a tiger escaped from the menagerie of charles jamrach, wandering about london's east end. taken up in the tiger's jaws, he is rescued by jamrach himself, who then offers jaffy a job. jaffy loves working at the menagerie and becomes friends with another employee, tim linver. he falls in love with tim's sister and the three of them grow up together on the streets of london.