Jessica Ernshaw has always had a few special gifts. She always seems able to spot a lie. She has an uncanny ability to work with animals, and sometimes has special dreams that help her feel connected to her mother who died when she was 8. Now Jessica is graduating from high school and looking forward to attending the University of Washington with her best friend and seeing more of the handsome young man she has finally connected with as her senior year draws to a close. Everything is going according to plan when she is suddenly torn from all she holds dear through an enchanted portal the night of graduation, and finds herself in a strange new world where she discovers the astonishing explanation for her special gifts. Her mother's family is from Esparia, an embattled country on the planet Edia, which has been magically connected with Earth across a trans-dimensional plane for millennia. Jessica will come to learn about her gifts and her heritage as she meets new friends and family, and takes up her birthright as the last living heir of a ruling dynasty, the Protectors. Meanwhile, desperate to find his daughter, Jessica's father, John, follows her to Esparia with the help of Jessica's maternal grandmother who had escaped Edia as a war refugee 50 years earlier with her daughter. John's journey leads him to find that magic is real, and a chance to make a difference comes with a commitment to serve. In a whirlwind summer adventure Jessica never could have anticipated, she learns, along with her father, what it means to be a true Protector of Esparia.