Seventeen-year-old Nore Robbins is staying with her father Chuck, stepmother Lisette Bergé, stepbrother Gabe, and stepsister Josie at their Louisiana plantation during the summer.
Nore's father recently remarried after her mother died less than a year ago, and this was her first time meeting her stepmother, stepbrother, and stepsister.
While Nore is looking for evidence that might convince her father something is not right about the new family, she finds a very old picture of Lisette, Josie, and Gabe who look the same as they do now apart from their clothing and hairstyle.
To account for her new family's unusual behavior and the information she has gathered, Nore suspects that her stepfamily does not age and that the padlocked cabin could hold important clues.
She develops a plan to climb a dovecote and jump off the fence, but decides to gather evidence of some of her discoveries from the cabin first.
Dave forces Gabe to go out and ask his mother for the key to the padlocked gate, but Lisette is outside the cabin waiting with a gun.
Duncan did not like this title because the story is set in southern United States during the summer where anything frozen would melt, so they came up with a compromise and named the book Locked in Time.
Charli Osborne from the School Library Journal thought that the narrator "does a fine job with the soft Louisiana accents, giving each character a unique voice.
"[5] Duncan stated that the story examines the idea of having eternal life and some of the issues surrounding remaining the same physical age.
[2] Cosette Kies wrote in her book Presenting Lois Duncan that Locked in Time combines the "horror of the occult" with threats of murder.
[16] Lois Duncan stated in 2009 that Locked in Time, along with Stranger with My Face, was the favorite young adult fiction novel she wrote.
[6] Betsy Hearne and Zena Sutherland of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books commented that the novel's "writing style is smooth," and the characters are strongly developed.
[17] Sarah Hayes from The Times Literary Supplement did not feel the novel was "particularly stylish or complex: just readable, compelling, and very frightening.
"[18] School Library Journal's Carolyn Gabbard Fugate thought that the story's setting at an old Louisiana mansion generates a mood of suspense and mystery.
[1] Leila Roy wrote in Kirkus Reviews that Nore's narration, which she stated was overdramatic and written more from the perspective of a senior citizen than a teenager, did not stop the novel from being entertaining.
However, she felt "the setup has too many holes to be ultimately convincing," stating that the "practical issues of legal identification/money/property taxes are all vaguely acknowledged, but mostly handwaved.