The Carrington children are on holiday in the English Lake District when they discover an injured badger cub lying in a ditch. The animal is cared for by their host, the owner of their holiday home and a former vet. When the injured beast is at last ready to be returned to the wild, the children learn of a plot by badger-baiters to dig out the local sett and use the animals in their violent, evil and extremely gruesome pastime.

Immediately the children try to warn people, but few adults believe their story. Even those who do assure them nothing could ever happen to the badgers for no one has dared to bother the residents of Badger Wood for nearly a century. Why? Because the wood, and all the peace-loving creatures that dwell within it, are guarded by the ghosts of the long-dead soldiers of the village of Merethwaite - well - they are - aren't they?