On the night of her twelfth birthday Lyric Doherty hears a song for the first of four times, a song that calls her into the woods just outside her family’s home. It lures her to a place where small trinkets are left for her without explanation. Lyric comes to believe that the song and the objects have something to do with her mother, a mother whom she barely remembers. Her grandmother told her that her mother left her, her father Michael and brother Padraig years before without saying a word. Her mother’s absence leaves Lyric with only vague memories and a longing to understand what drove her away.

At school, Lyric and her friends Fin (Finola) and Andrew are trying to introduce a new elective course that explains how things work. At a time when mysterious gadgets of all types are in use, the three friends want to learn more beyond the imagining and speculation that dominates their classes. Under the leadership of two pixie headmistresses, the classes become more and more tedious and painfully boring. Their search for knowledge leads the three friends to the Seanachai, the only surviving ship that is keeper of all the knowledge found in their small universe, and its captain, Caitlin O'Malley.

Travel on this journey with Lyric and her friends and discover new worlds filled with pirates and pixies, blunt thinkers and fairies, and a treacherous path that leads to the family Lyric and Andrew are both looking for.