Royals, royals everywhere! Little Ipswich is an otherwise average, small-town except for one thing. Set afloat in the Lux Sea that borders it is Emily, an enormous stone castle where magical and miraculous things are said to go on. After being scared out of her wits by a doomsday prophecy involving the castle and a strange place called Brumbletide, twelve-year-old Maggie Prewitt begs her mother to take her to Emily to find out what it's all about. Inside, Maggie finds a talking candle, magical creatures, and flying children called Snickerlings. And if that wasn't enough, the general public is treated as royalty getting to sit on luxurious thrones and dress in fabulous gowns and sparkling crowns. Emily also has its own academy where young people are "groomed into their royal destiny," which, like it or not, Maggie gets the chance of a lifetime to attend. At the academy, she undergoes a drastic transformation, learns lots of new things in classes such as Disposition and Non-Common Sense, and even finds out that she is a descendant of one of seven highly esteemed ancestors chosen by the Great White Stag, Pippin. But it isn't long before Maggie realizes all that glitters is not gold at Emily, and that things unseen may not only be secret, but sinister.