The story describes the adventures of Drac the Warrior Queen of Tirnol Two who joins forces with the Gremlin of Groaning Grotto in battle against their enemies. The images reveal the game of dress up and how the household animals are the evil foes against the brother and sister. Here the illustrations actually resignify text. John Burningham uses excess and indeterminacy in many of his picture books. A trip to a pebbly English beach for Shirley and her parents have entirely separate contexts.
Text records the monologue of the preoccupied parents.
Drawings of the parents are minimal in colour on the same page as text, evocative of the drabness of routine. Opposite, Shirley's full colour adventure extends some element of the monologue into full fantasy with pirates and hidden treasure. This is an interesting subtle understatement of the contrast between reality and fantasy, maturity and youth, with the final lack of closure adding to the ambiguity. The reader's initial certainty about the option they would choose becomes discomfort as the options assume extreme proportions and our conclusions become less defined. The opening image of a boy flying a paper aeroplane from a window is followed by the image of the boy in a small aeroplane while the third picture is of two children flying a bird shaped kite over a stark landscape.