Twelve-year-old Lars Olafson's move to his great-aunt's farm near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, brings him friendship with the ghost of an eighteenth-century ancestor who recounts his adventures during the American Revolution, helping Lars adjust to his new home and playing a part in the search for a missing will.
While taking one last driving tour of Wyoming before moving out of state, eleven-year-old Angela accompanies her beloved seventy-eight-year-old great-aunt Hil to Yellowstone National Park, where Hil's strange behavior suggests she may be losing her sanity.
After Ombria's prince, Royce Greve, dies, he leaves his young son at the mercy of his ancient great-aunt, a woman who has plotted her rise to power in Ombria for far too many years to allow a little boy to stand in her way.
Feeling somewhat abandoned by her mother, twelve-year-old Sage is sent to spend the summer at the Maine home of her great-aunts, where she learns about and begins to identify with her family's history.
Ben is having problems making sense of his life and fitting in at his high school, but when his Great-Aunt Frieda comes to visit, her stories about her childhood in Russia help Ben discover who he is and who he wants to be.