It just looks like an old fountain in a garden, nothing remarkable, half-hidden behind stone walls and a grove of trees. But twelve-year-old Cadence soon discovers that it's remarkably, impossibly difficult to reach. And she also comes to find that she's not the only one trying to get to it.

What starts out as a pretty ordinary, lonely summer vacation, when Cadence goes to stay with the mysterious Mrs. Brier, quickly turns into a rather extraordinary quest. And, along the way, Cadence makes new friends – and enemies - in an adventure that leads her inexorably to the fountain in the garden, to legends, magic, and things well beyond imagining.