Spells fly as wizards clash in a forest where even trees possess magic. A wandering witch, rudely interrupted in her efforts to make a home for herself in the woods, joins the fray. So does a wood nymph, determined to defend her threatened friends: the trees. In the middle of it all, a shapeshifter lurks. Its motives are unclear but it leaves destruction in its trail. It all begins at a country inn where bad things have happened and the witch, wizard and wood nymph first meet. Their efforts to restore order are complicated by uncomfortable encounters in such places as a magic library that might not have any doors and a mine where a magician is trying to transmute a base metal into.