A humorously illustrated duo of children’s books take two pairs of youngsters on exciting journeys across America and to a mysterious tropical island. Alice and Sidney live in Australia. Their grandfather, Charlie, collects birds of all sorts, in pictures and glass cases, gathered from many parts of the world. His favourites are tropical birds. There is one, however, that he has never seen. This is the most splendid of all, the Bird of Paradise, which lives north of Australia in Papua New Guinea. Alice and Sidney decide that they will travel to Papua to find and photograph the fabulous bird. They are helped in their quest by the pilot Bob and his assistant Willy, who has another, unexpected guise and who leads them into amazing adventures.