The story starts around the year 1900 when Mandie finds a mystery to solve with her friends like Joe Woodard and Celia Hamilton.
The setting is mostly in North Carolina in the early 20th century, although Mandie and her friends travel to Charleston, Washington, D.C., Europe and New York City throughout the series.
[3] A direct-to-video film based on the first book, Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, was produced in 2009, starring Lexi Johnson and Dean Jones.
[4] Mandie was born on June 6, 1888, and grew up in a log cabin in Swain County, North Carolina, with her beloved father Jim Shaw, her stepmother Etta, and her stepsister Irene.
Then her father's old friend, Ned Sweetwater, a Cherokee, came to take her away from the family who treated her cruelly and escorted her to the home of her uncle, John Shaw, who Mandie had never seen.
Many of the books in the series are set in Cherokee, North Carolina, where she stays with her uncle and always manages to find a mystery to solve.