When his uncle sends him to work at the mysterious Stallery Mansion, twelve-year-old Conrad Tesdinic overcomes his bad karma and discovers in the mansion's winecellar the source of the magic that threatens to pull his world into one of the eleven other parallel universes.

When Charmain is asked to housesit for Great Uncle William, the Royal Wizard of Norland, she is ecstatic to get away from her parents, but finds that his house is much more than it seems.

After two centuries of feuding the powers of the two families of magicians in mythical Caprona are too weak to stop an incipient war, but the younger members of the families find a way.

Aileen's family of magic makers includes Aunt Beck, the most powerful magician on Skarr, but her own magic does not show itself until a mission for the King and a magical cat help her find strength and confidence.

When a teacher at an English boarding school finds a note on his desk accusing someone in the class of being a witch, magical things begin to happen and an Inquisitor is summoned.