The story takes place in 1970. Staff Sergeant Joel Wade has been reported missing in action in Vietnam, and his children, Holly, Judy, and Crockett, must move from Boston to live with their grandparents in Sussex, Massachusetts, a small town with a rich history.

The grandparents, Mercy and Lute, live by the village junkyard on the remains of the old Dimsdale estate. Their house does not have electricity or running water, but it is a cozy, loving home, cluttered with odds and ends and objects awaiting repair.

A garden maze planted in 1683 by Master Truelow still stands, now overgrown and abandoned, on the Dimsdale estate. By sleeping on a magic pillow, the children find the entrance to this maze, and as they journey within it, they visit an earlier century and meet Tamar and Hagar, the daughters of Master Truelow.

During the late seventeenth century, a witch-hunting panic spread...