Miranda has one messy desk. It's full of books, pencils, science projects and...other stuff. "Too much stuff," says her teacher, Ms. Basil. On a family visit to her Uncle Aldo's one night, Miranda wonders if some of his magician's tools might offer a solution to her messy-desk problem. Sneaking off to the magic room, Miranda finds Uncle Aldo's impressive collection of top hats. Miranda knows that magic top hats can hold lots of things--why not the mess from her desk? At first, the hat seems to do the trick, but soon things start to go horribly wrong. As Uncle Aldo says, "you have to be careful with magic."