Wrong From The First is the story of Adele Herbert who is sent to live with her cousins when her father is sent to war. Mr Holt is her fathers cousin, who has two children Angelo & Myra, their mother has passed away and Mr Holt has remarried making Angelo & Myra the step children of Mrs Holt, who has now had a child with Mr Holt.

The essence of the book is that the children all assume that Mrs Holt does not care for them and they treat her poorly and rudely on the basis of these assumptions, when Adele arrives to stay with them they bring her into their confidence and convince her that Mrs Holt is mean spirited and does not care for them. Furthermore Myra tells Adele that the uncured injuries that Angelo suffers from could be cured but Mrs Holt chooses not to pursue treatment, thus leaving Angelo a cripple out of spite.

There's a considerable amount of dialogue and being written and set in 19th century England there's a few historical notes such as school rooms set up in houses, governesses, stay in nurses, travelling teachers, soldiers leaving by sailing ship, and the dig at gypsies being essentially dirty criminals. It's on par with most young adult books from the era.

As one may guess from the title, these assumptions are in fact false and the gist of the book is that making rash assumptions is conceited and foolish and "how shocking and unnatural it was that [children] should give [a step parent] anything but love and obedience". ( )