"The Bed and Breakfast Star" is about a girl called Elsa, who is the narrator of the story. She has a sunny disposition and loves to tell jokes, especially when she is trying to cheer up the people around her. As a child, Elsa lived happily with her mum until her mum fell in love with "Mack the Smack", a Scottish man whom Elsa dislikes because he is extremely short-tempered and, as the nickname suggests, frequently uses smacking as a punishment. Elsa's mum married Mack and together they had Pippa, Elsa's nearly five-year-old sister, and Hank, her infant brother.