I'm totally a Masterpiece Theatre junkie and I loved the televisionization of this book. I'm surprised how much I liked it, considering the difficulty I'm having reading The Golden Compass (I just can't get into it.) The characters in Ruby just seem so much more lively to me. Anyway, Sally was a great protagonist, being neither a sheepish Victorian youngster, nor a termagant. (Ha! I learned that word in the book!) The story really drove this book, with not a lot of character development as the book progressed nor internal dialogue. However, it worked for me and the characters were already satisfactorily developed!
Anyway, here's what happens:
Sally's father dies, leaving her practically penniless. She goes to live with a cruel distant relative. She receives a mysterious letter that leads her to the offices of her late father, where she meets Jim. During her investigation of the letter, she is given a diary that will explain everything and meets a photographer, Frederick. The mystery deepens when she finds that Mrs. Holland, who is a termagant, threatens her. The diary is stolen before she gets a chance to read it all, except for a few pages that fell out. She ends up moving in the Frederick and his sister and they hire her to be their accounts manager. From there, with the help of all of her new friends, she solves the mystery--of herself, her father, a giant ruby, and some missing money.