On a summer afternoon in 1998, Lizzie Chetwyrd embarks on a journey that will change her life, and the world, forever. Lizzie's story begins innocently enough when her elderly Aunt Maggie gives her the family's ancestral home in Concord, Massachusetts. The house is full of memories for Lizzie, who spent childhood summers there, losing herself in the sense of wonder and magic that seemed to dwell in the fabric of the house and its surroundings. But when she drives from her nearby Cambridge apartment to visit the house for the first time in years, she is startled by its appearance. Time, the elements and neglect have diminished its former glory. The once imposing 18th century dwelling stands abandoned in an eerie tangle of vines, peeling paint and sadness that seems to have erased the enchantment and consumed the spirit of the old house. On one of Lizzie's visits to Aunt Maggie in the nursing home where she is living, the old woman encourages her to spend more time at the house, listening and watching because "Concord has places of deep power and the house rests upon one." Lizzie, who is accustomed to hearing her aunt spin strange tales, dismisses the notion until Aunt Maggie shows her family daguerreotypes of the era. Lizzie is stunned to see her own image in one of the pictures. Lizzie's journeys begin through a fold in time-to 1842 where she meets her great-great-great-great Grandmother Sophronia. She befriends the visionaries Emerson and Thoreau who soon suspect that she is more than a visiting relative. As the friendship deepens between Lizzie and the writers, they learn of her otherworldly journeys. Emerson's writing begin to reflect Lizzie's experience and his growing belief that-"Time and space are just inverse measures of the force of the soul. A man is capable of abolishing them both. The spirit sports with time."