Charlie Bone awakes one morning to find the city covered with snow and all the animals gone. Where have they gone - and why? Blessed the dog tells Billy there was a terrible shuddering of the earth and immediately after, he saw a witch with two shadows crossing the hall in the Bloor's Academy. Could the discovery of an ancient mirror, and the movement of the shadow in the Red King's portrait have something to do with it? And a strange girl appears outside Charlie's house. She tells him he must follow her to find the animals. Can he trust her, and will she perhaps lead him to find someone he lost long before the animals?
Charlie Bone is back at Bloor's Academy where a new semester -- and new powers -- await him. But nothing is quite the same as Charlie left it. A mysterious student seems to be magnetic. One of the new teachers stands out -- for all the wrong reasons. And before long, Charlie learns that his friend Billy has been locked behind a force field in the spooky Passing House. But when Charlie discovers the secret of the Castle of Mirrors, everything changes. Sinister forces are at work, and only one of the endowed children can set things right again. But who?
Charlie's Uncle Paton has dashed off to try to stop the Yewbeam aunts' latest plan, but when Grandma Bone greets the arrival of Belle with delight, could this be what Paton left hoping to prevent?
In 1923, Arapahos from the Wind River Reservation were recruited to appear as extras in the silent film The Covered Wagon. But Charlie Wallowingbull never returned home, leaving people to believe he abandoned his wife and unborn son. Kiki Wallowingbull, Charlie's great-grandson, went to Hollywood determined to uncover the truth behind his great-grandfather's disappearance. But Kiki has been murdered - his frozen body discovered by Father John, and his supposed killer confessing to Vicky that it was self-defense. Together, they must find the connection between two deaths separated by nearly a century.
