Jan Van Gelder, owner of the Bildara junkyard, was an ace pilot during the war and has kept his small plane as a souvenir in a hangar by the runway. He is requesting a permission to the council to give airplane rides to children, but Cribbins enjoys refusing it with the excuse that he's too old to fly.
The people of Bildara feel honored and intrigued by their last neighbors in Spain. Mr. Ortega, a Spaniard who owns a dressage and riding school, opposes his daughter having a relationship with the boys from Secret Valley. At the same time, the best of Ortega's horses disappears and all suspicion falls on the members of the valley.
At the core of the series is a group of young children who decide to help Dan McCormack, an impoverished man, keep his land, including a deserted gold-mining town and a valley. They turn it into a holiday camp for children. But attempts to whisk away Old Dan's ownership are constantly being made by a malevolent developer, William Woppa, who dreams of gaining a fortune when a highway is built through the valley.