Summary

The novel opens with an untitled chapter. This section serves the purpose of a preface and focuses on a little boy named Otto. The time is “50 years before the war to end all wars” (2). Otto and his friends, including a little girl named Mathilde, are playing a game and he is determined to be the last person found. He goes into the woods, knowing no one else will dare follow him there. He takes a seat and begins reading a book. The title of the book is The Thirteenth Harmonica of Otto Messenger.

The storyline then moves to that book's first chapter, titled “A Witch, a Kiss, a Prophecy.” A king's kingdom will only revert to his child if the first child born is a son. If the child is a daughter, the king's brother will become the next ruler. The...