Twelve-year-old Tanya Fairchild spends her summer vacation in the seaside town of Spinney Wicket, where she makes a new friend, learns about the fairy realm, and discovers a magical wishing tree.

Bedeviled by evil fairies that only she can see, thirteen-year-old Tanya is sent to stay with her cold and distant grandmother at Elvesden Manor, where she and the caretaker's son solve a disturbing mystery that leads them to the discovery that Tanya's life is in danger. When children begin to disappear, she realizes that it is up to her, along with the caretaker's son, Fabian, to go into Hangman's Wood and find the truth. There she encounters a girl...