A foundling girl with a crooked leg and a crutch doesn't expect life to be easy. Indeed, Maggie's dearest wish is to simply not feel so alone. So when she spies a man behind bars in a magic mirror said to show one's truest desire, she feels sure he is the father she's always longed for--and she sets off on a quest to find him.

Along the way, Maggie meets both kindly pilgrims and dastardly highwaymen. She discovers she bears a striking resemblance to the princess Petranilla. Their connection is so remarkable that Petra believes Maggie must be her lost sister who fell from the castle wall and was swept downriver as a baby.

What a turn of fate From reviled foundling to beloved royal But being the lost princess turns out to be more curse than blessing given the schemes of the current king... And if Maggie's a princess, then who is the man she spied in the magic mirror?

This is a grand middle grade adventure story full of mistaken identities, lost loves, found families, and a tantalizing tinge of magic.

"I love this book--an uproarious, thoughtful, touching, absurd, ans altogether splendid adventure." --Karen Cushman, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Midwife's Apprentice and Catherine, Called Birdy