When her family moves from Chicago to the country, nine-year-old Emily is drawn to a mysterious playhouse she finds in the woods and soon meets its sad, lonely inhabitant.

When she goes to her grandmother's house for the first time, Zoey finds a tiny china doll that comes alive in her hands and believes that she is a princess and that Zoey is her servant.

Delsie knew it wasn't a good idea to dare her best friend Todd to explore the abandoned houses by the old mill. But she couldn't back down after the words slipped out of her mouth. Together the two friends bike to the mill and try the door of each abandoned house. They are all locked . . . except one. Delsie and Todd sneak inside and discover two strange things. Someone is living there. And something doesn't want Delsie to leave. It's a dog, a strange...