Very strange occurrences have long surrounded fourteen-year-old Bran, who learns of his link to a curse created by his murdered mother and strives to make things right, hindered by the ban on magic in the city of Dunce and pursued by his mother's former masters.

In alternating voices, sixteen-year-old Chicagoan Anne and handsome, magical Ethan tell of their fated quest to rescue Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia, who tells of her long captivity in the hut of legendary witch Baba Yaga.