Tabitha Devins spent 18 years waiting for her mother to tell her whom her father was, where her mother had disappeared to all those years ago and perhaps shed some light on how she got magical abilities. Now it is the summer of her high school graduation and she plans on saving every penny she can earn to get off to college, leave the island of Porta Negra and her mother's secrets behind her. Now, as she sees a sliver of freedom in her future, her mother disappears once again with only a cryptic note. The clues lead Tabitha to the glen known as Dark Hollow where her mother originally disappeared. Tabitha delves into the nest of secrets her mother left and finds a world she never knew existed with a race of people with magical abilities much like her own. As she searches this new world for her mother, she discovers that her father has been looking for her as well. Before she can head off to meet him, she finds herself caught between a magical race of people discouraging her from meeting her father and the onset of a dark drama back on her island home which could keep her from ever being able to return home.