The first fiction feature by documentary director Michael Rubbo, the solution of the title refers to a magical cure for hair restoration devised by the ghosts of two tramps for a bold boy called Michael.

Michael's sense of daring had caused his premature baldness: he had been drawn to an old “haunted” house and become so scared that all his hair had fallen out. Though the cure does its part, the adventures are still to come for Michael, who finds himself a prisoner in a Dickensian magic paintbrush factory with 20 other children.