During the summer, when the unseen membrane that separates this world from the next is thinnest at the portal known as the witching well, Rosa seeks out companionship. Deprived of love, she feels connected to the twisted creatures from the world of fairy tales. Most people believe those long-told childhood stories are fiction, but in fact, they are real. They are not, however, as happily-ever-after as those of this world choose to tell them.