While staying on her uncle's rundown farm in the Somerset countryside, twelve-year-old Midge discovers that she has a special connection to the Various, a tribe of "strange, wild--and sometimes deadly" fairies struggling to maintain their existence in the nearby woods.

In Somerset, England, during World War I, Celandine becomes involved in the lives of the little people living on a hill near her family's farm, while also coming to terms with her own healing abilities and psychic gifts.

Baz and Ray, survivors of an apocalyptic flood, win places on X-Isle, an island where life is rumored to be better than on the devastated mainland, but they find the island to be a violent place ruled by religious fanatic Preacher John, andthey decide they must come up with a weapon to protect themselves from impending danger.