As his flesh is stuck to the ice sculpture, he tries to scream out words to other people but all he gets are laughs because of his nasal noises.

A group of four young girls — among them the then-six year old protagonist, Nicole — (called the Brownies in the book), led by Mr. and Mrs. Hardbristle were escaping for their lives.

When they reached town, no one was in sight and Mrs. Hardbristle sacrificed her life by digging a hole for her husband and the four girls, she suffocated in the smoke.

Mr. Hardbristle however was depressed, he thought he was a coward and states to Nicole that he won't be happy until the tree blooms, as it tells him his wife has forgiven him.

Seven years have passed and Nicole, now thirteen and using a bucket full of what she thought was fertilizer, accidentally destroys the magnolia tree due to it being blackberry killer instead.

Back in the present, a young man (called Young Ponytail) gives her an enchanted mouth organ that, whenever a song is played on it, causes whoever hears it to act to the lyrics and tells her to "use her own tunes, not other peoples".

She starts with, "Tom Dooley" by The Kingston Trio, which magically causes the tourists to cry.

Tomorrow comes, and she takes the mouth organ and the money to school, she wonders if she can get the one thousand dollars before 12 o'clock.

Almost immediately things look different, no one was looking at Nicole anymore and no one asked her to play it, the mouth organ became cursed.

As Nicole forces the organ to her mouth, instead of the soothing melodies a horrible noise fills the room and the class groans.

The weather turned to rain and everyone in town chases after her desperate to stop the awful noise of the organ until they corner Nicole at the dead magnolia tree.

When she finally opens her eyes, Mr. Hardbristle and everyone in town is smiling... the magnolia tree is in full bloom.

Tired of being bossed around by his brother (Gobble), who is extremely overweight and spends his whole time lying in bed watching TV and eating junk food, while he just spends the whole day working, a young man (Mr. Simpkin) runs away from home; when he stops at a toilet block, he gets locked in.

As the toilet block opens, the man writes a message saying that his brother disappears and the man goes home and sees that his brother is gone forever A boy burns his buttocks after trying to photocopy them, causing him to feel pain whenever he sits down.

Knowing that neither of them can go on any further, the boy sits down on his burnt bottom and tears rush from his eyes as he feels the unbearable pain.