Nineteen-year-old Harriet Morton's life is forever changed when a Russian ballet master invites her to dance in a production of "Swan Lake", and, defying her parents' wishes, Harriet travels to the Amazon with the dance company and begins an affair with a mysterious British exile.
It is pre-World War II and Ruth Beger falls in love with Heini Radek, a young prodigy, who is studying piano at the Conservatoire in Vienna. When Hitler's troops invade Austria, Ruth has the opportunity to escape to England, but at the price of betraying her love to Heini and marrying someone else.
Odge Gribble, a young hag, accompanies an old wizard, a gentle fey, and a giant ogre on their mission through a magical tunnel from their Island to London to rescue their king and queen's son who had been stolen as an infant.
Deciding that he must sire a child to carry on his tradition of Loathing Light and Blighting the Beautiful, the Great Wizard Arriman announces a competition among the witches of Todcaster, one of whom will marry him.
During a summer at their great-uncle and aunt's castle in northern England, eleven-year-old Madlyn and her younger brother, Rollo, attempt, with the help of several ghosts, to save the rare cattle that live on the grounds.
As they get older, several sisters decide that they must kidnap children and bring them to their secluded island home to help with the work of caring for an assortment of unusual sea creatures.
Deciding that he must sire a child to carry on his tradition of Loathing Light and Blighting the Beautiful, the Great Wizard Arriman announces a competition among the witches of Todcaster, one of whom will marry him.
When twelve-year-old Alex's Scottish castle of Carra is sold, dismantled, and moved to Texas, the ghosts that raised him from a child have difficulty relocating.
