The stories collected here are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi's ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another. The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits...

In their third trip through the enchanted library, Cleo and Evan land in "The Werewolf's Curse" where Evan is promptly bitten by a werewolf, and the two need to find the cure--and the next key--before the full moon rises and Evan becomes stuck in this horror story forever.

This time Cleo, Evan, the evil Mr. Locke, and his two trolls have all been transported to the Titanic--and if they do not find and save the priceless jeweled copy of the Rubiyat before the ship hits the iceberg and sinks they may all be lost at sea.

This time Cleo, Evan, and Ms. Crowley (who, it turns out, is the missing Ms. Hilliard's sister) find themselves in a confusing fantasy book, caught up in a war with wizards, elves, trolls, and the mighty Golden Dragon--and while they manage to find their missing librarian, their quest does not end there.

Having taken the silver key, the evil wizard Maldred is after the gold key, which is protected by the Gold Dragon and her Dragon Master, Darma, but by the time Drake and Rori get there, Eko and her Thunder Dragon have seized the gold key--so together the three dragon masters, follow her through the portal to Maldred's tower, but without their dragons will they be able to stop Maldred and his deluded helper, or even save themselves?