Margery Mutters has just received a curious letter notifying her of her uncle's death. It comes in no ordinary envelope: piercing black eyes on the envelope cast a spell on her, and odd things start to happen. Driven by the enchanting eyes, she is soon on a journey to an island full of secrets: Rooke's Island. Margery sets off to explore the three levels of this bizarre land that she has just inherited, riding the super root coaster through the tunnels that run through the Lower Earth like a subway. Then, she plunges deep down through a shaft into the island's very core and enters the kingdom of the Inner Earth. From the peculiar to the creepy and downright terrifying, nothing makes sense, and nothing is familiar-but there's no turning back.
When Margery meets the wise and magical owls who inhabit these Earths, their secrets become her own. She is invited to take her uncle's place on their Council of Owls, and she unintentionally becomes an integral part of their ancient prophecy. But even the slightest change in history could affect the owls' destiny for another thousand years .