The three Walker children are horrified when they find that suddenly, they weren't in San Francisco anymore, and their parents were nowhere to be found.

Cordelia is mystified when they meet Will Draper, a member of the Royal Flying Corps from World War I, who seems quite familiar.

They go on crazy adventures and jump over extreme hurdles like deaths and danger, meeting all sorts of friends as well as foes, all to find this Book of Doom and Desire.

[6] After completing the manuscript, Columbus and Vizzini solicited the advice of J.K. Rowling, who recommended that they add more character development to the novel as it "[moved] too fast".

Lovecraft, and designed the book's chapters to end on cliffhangers akin to "the work of someone like Michael Crichton or even Charles Dickens".