Peter Scattergood is a boy with serious problems and that was before he met the EIDOLON, a mysterious being who insists he is an entirely natural phenomenon like the trees and the hills. He claims not be involved with magic but knows how to manipulate natural forces. He uses this power to help Peter to escape from the clutches of his mother's sinister ex-boyfriend Bert Shaddock. Bert wants to involve Peter in selling stolen goods but the eidolon shows Peter how to create a 'buying mania' which means that the goods are sold in minutes and that Peter can get on with his schooling and improve as the eidolon wishes. The eidolon tells Peter that a hostile force fears that Peter has an important role to play in fulfilling some vital task. This force, the Owl King, will stop at nothing to foil Peter. It motivated Bert Shaddock and when that failed it tries something else. Peter and his friends are trapped inside a Stone Age tomb with the angry Stone Age people on the outside. They escape but the eidolon has to tell Peter that he doesn't know what the vital task is. Whatever it involved he was damaged many years ago and now it's up to Peter to find the task and complete it.