Christopher Plummer

King Lear is universally acknowledged as one of Shakespeare's greatest tragic roles. Plummer has played the role under the direction of Sir Jonathan Miller (who, we discover, has directed it six times).

The American child star Sugar Dimples becomes homesick when visiting Paris, and especially misses Halloween, which is not celebrated in France. At first Sugar Dimples does not appreciate the children's efforts to cheer her up, even when the girls and Pepito turn an abandoned castle into a haunted house.

When the girls go for pony rides in the park, Madeline's pony, Gallop, (the smallest) does all sorts of fancy tricks and finally takes off, trotting across Paris! Soon they are discovered by Buffalo Ben, who invites them to appear in his touring Wild West Show.

The newspaper sponsors a treasure hunt leading to a chest full of money. The clues lead the group to famous Paris landmarks, where the girls lose valuable time when they stop to help people in trouble (like a little boy whose sailboat has blown away). When they reach the treasure chest, someone else has arrived there first.

Genevieve digs up a huge bone in the garden that turns out to be a fossilized stegosaurus' hip bone. The girls are thrilled with the discovery until the Old House becomes a dig site and is invaded by hordes of paleontologists and equipment. Calm is briefly restored after Miss Clavel convinces Lord Cucuface to donate the bone to a museum.

Pepito becomes frustrated when an old lamp from the Embassy attic fails to produce a Genie, and he throws the lamp in the trash. That night a frayed old Magic Carpet comes to Madeline's window and asks her help in finding the discarded lamp, because it does indeed have a Genie inside.

Madeline, the girls, Pepito, and his three naughty cousins go on a field trip to Egypt. Nicole becomes terrified when they experience a series of mishaps - from getting locked in the museum to getting caught in a desert dust storm on camelback. Then the group gets lost in the pyramids and encounters a mummy who speaks to them in an echoey voice and curses them with bad luck!

Madeline, Pepito and the girls take the famed Orient Express to Istanbul to compete in the International Spelling Bee. When a snake charmer on the train announces that his prize cobra is missing, Madeline and Pepito volunteer to search for the missing serpent (although the other girls refuse).

After being evicted from the opera for barking along with her favorite arias, Genevieve is dog napped by an impresario who sets her up at a dinner theatre. When Madeline finally catches up with her talented canine, Genevieve, now a star is reluctant to go home because she is still embarrassed about the incident at the opera. It is up to Madeline to convince Genevieve how much she is missed at the Old House.

When Madeline and the girls visit a toy factory, Madeline is accidentally boxed as a "doll" and sold to a handicapped girl. The ailing child considers Madeline her only friend and is devastated when Madeline reveals her true identity and has to go home. But things turn around the next day when the little girl discovers she now has twelve real live friends.