The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Shaffer, Meg. The Wishing Game. Ballantine Books, 2023. Kindle Edition

As the novel opens, there are two sets of characters. Hugo and Jack live on Clock Island. This is a nearly perfectly round island set up like a clock, with each hour representing a different place on a clock. Jack has been drinking and has not written in years despite the fact that for many years he was a highly successful novelist of a series of children’s books off which Clock Island was designed. Hugo desires to leave the island, but he feels a loyalty to Jack because Jack helped him when he, himself, was going through a difficult time. Hugo is bitter and feels his life is stagnating.

Meanwhile a woman named Lucy desires to adopt a young boy, Christopher. Lucy is a teacher’s aid, and Christopher comes to her after school for help. Christopher’s parents died from drug overdoses, and he is the one who found them laying in their bed, deceased. He is afraid of phones because his mother’s phone was ringing when he discovered their bodies, and he is traumatized. He had no immediate family to care for him, so when his parents died, a social worker asked him if there was anyone he wanted to stay with. He mentioned Lucy. She took him in temporarily and read to him from the Clock Island books. It is in the reading of these books that he speaks for the first time after his parents’ death. As the novel opens, Lucy is trying to get permanent custody of Christopher while he lives in foster care. Lucy goes in to see his social worker, Mrs. Acosta, who tells Lucy that she will not be able to either foster or adopt Christopher because she does not have a proper place to live or enough money to care for him. Mrs. Acosta tells her that it takes a village to raise a child, and Lucy does not have that village. Still, Lucy refuses to get a better paying job that would allow her to get suitable housing for a child because it would mean more time away from Christopher, and she refuses to ask her sister for money because she is estranged from her sister.

People around town start talking about a riddle Jack shares publicly. Lucy realizes that she knows the answer to the riddle. When she was a child, she ran away to Clock Island hoping that she could be Jack’s sidekick, and while he attended to her needs there, he told her the answer to the riddle. She then gets an invitation to Clock Island. There will be a contest, and the winner will get full rights to Jack’s newest book. This would mean that Lucy could sell the book and get the home necessary to raise Christopher in.

Lucy goes to the island which is off the coast of Maine, her home state. She sees Hugo, the books’ illustrator, on the island, and she remembers having a crush on him when she first came to the island as a child. The other contestants also snuck to the island to see Jack when they were younger, hoping he could make their wishes a reality. There are riddles in the game and different contests, and the winners of these games will be awarded a certain number of points. The first person to get ten points wins. If nobody wins, rights to the book will go to the Clock Island books’ publisher.

Lucy starts the contest successfully. A book collector summons her and offers her a large sum of money should she give him the book if she wins. He wishes to keep it as the only copy of the book because it will be very valuable if it is never distributed widely. She turns him down because she believes the book needs to be available to all readers. Another contestant, Dustin, asks her to cheat with him. She turns him down, and he is kicked out of the game.

Meanwhile it is revealed that the reason Jack has not written in years is because another young child, Amber, wrote to him years ago telling him about the sexual abuse her father committed against her. He tried unsuccessfully to get the authorities involved, and Amber decided to sneak to the island to be with Jack, but she died in the process. Hugo has stayed on the island to help Jack recover, but his recovery is not happening. Hugo feels this loyalty to Jack because when Hugo’s brother died, Jack helped him heal and also took care of all of Hugo’s family’s needs.

One part of the contest requires the contestants to face their greatest fears. Because of this, Jack invites Angie, Lucy’s sister, to the island. Lucy resents her sister because her sister was very ill as a child and got all of their parents’ attention, and one day, Angie told Lucy that she was never wanted. Lucy spent much of her childhood living with her grandparents. Because Lucy never felt loved by her parents, she believes love is all that is necessary to be a good parent. When she speaks with Angie, Angie tells her that she grew up insecure because she knew she could lose her parents' love and that her parents needed her to be sick so they could feel important as parents. The two reconcile.

In the last contest, Lucy needs to call Christopher to find the answer. She does not believe he will answer because of his fear of phones. Jack has been working with him, however, to get him to overcome this fear. He answers the phone and gives Lucy the answer, but it is not in time, and the rights to the book go to the publisher. Jack still wants to take care of the contestants, however, and finds other ways to make their wishes come true. He offers his home to Lucy and Christopher. This allows Lucy to be Jack’s sidekick like she always wished for and gives her a way to mother Christopher. Since Lucy will be with Jack, Hugo now has the freedom to come and go from the island. Hugo and Lucy fall in love.