Jenny pulled the oak door open and walked inside. "Ouch " The floor and the ceiling changed places, and she found herself hanging in the air, with her nose pressed against the stone floor. Sharp claws closed tight around her waist. She jerked forward and saw a scaly torso and a pair of red, glittering eyes. For Jenny, a sophisticated New Yorker, the idea of staying in Lancaster with her grandma for two years sounds like a boring proposition. But when an older man, her grandmother's friend, hires her to help him with his reading and correspondence, Jenny comes across a mystery surrounding the man's family. Who is the boy whose picture is carefully hidden behind rows of books on the shelf? And why does the man's wife, Gertrude, possess strange powers? Jenny's quest of finding the missing boy will be dangerous, and who will help her achieve her goal?