At nineteen, Polly has two sets of sometimes overlapping,sometimes conflicting memories, the real-life ones of school days and herparents' divorce, and the heroic adventure ones that began the day sheaccidentally gate-crashed a funeral and met the cellist Thomas Lynn.

Sent to a boisterous family gathering in Ireland by her overly strict grandmother, orphaned Hayley feels out of place until her unruly cousins include her in a special game involving travel through the mythosphere, the place where all the world's stories can be found, and where some secrets of her past are revealed.