Until the moment that Lyric hears these words, she never knew why her mother left her, her brother and father. Did something drive her mother away? Or take her away?

In the Village Na Crainn (the village "in the trees"), magic is everyday life, from cook-quickly ovens to play-themselves guitars. Lyric attends the Girls and Boys Gathering to Learn Academy of the Village Na Crainn, an unusual place of learning up the hill from the village and down the hill from Lyric's home. Lyric and her best friends Fin (Finola) and Andrew try to convince the headmistress of the academy to teach the students more about how the world really works. When Headmistress Murielle Twill rejects their wish, the three make a trip to the Arbor Fair, where scientific instruments and forbidden books of knowledge are traded for blinks of the eye and songs in four-part harmony. At the fair Lyric meets the person who tells her, "You're part fairy, aren't you?" and starts her on the journey that leads her to the Otherworld of the fairies, discovering there surprises that change her life forever.