Eight-year-old George Kranky lives on a remote farm with his parents and grandmother. As an only child, George often feels bored and lonely. One Saturday morning, Mrs. Kranky leaves to go shopping. As she leaves, she reminds George to give Grandma her medicine at 11 o’clock.

Grandma is small, grumpy, and selfish, with a “puckered-up mouth like a dog’s bottom” (2). After Mrs. Kranky leaves, she demands that George make her a cup of tea according to her exacting specifications. She proceeds to criticize George for “growing too fast” (4), acting like a child, and eating chocolate instead of cabbage. Grandma adds that she eats cabbage with caterpillars, then explains that she likes to eat slugs, beetles, and other insects as well. Just as George is wondering whether she could be a witch, Grandma hints that she has magical powers and knows disturbing secrets. She beckons to George, but he runs into the kitchen and closes the door behind him.

George decides to come up with “something whopping” to get back at Grandma (10). Spotting the medicine she takes four times each day, which appears to have little or no effect, George decides to make a new, “magic” medicine so powerful it will “either cure her completely or blow off the top of her head” (12).