Tolly comes to live with his great-grandmother at the ancient house of Green Knowe and becomes friends with three children who lived there in the seventeenth century.

While visiting the ancient manor house of Green Knowe for the summer, Ping, Ida, and Oskar find an old canoe and set out upon the water. They have no idea that they are rowing into other worlds entirely-- places where giants recline on the shore, and horses have wings, and a simple paddle downriver becomes a journey into a land of enchantment.

L. M. Boston's thrilling and chilling tales of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside, have been entertaining readers for half a century. The fifth book in the series finally brings together our two main protagonists: the house's blood relative Tolly and the Chinese refugee Ping, both of whom have featured in the previous books, but never together.