In the Wood on All Hallows' Eve, Queen Greylen of the Birchen Trees and her followers are confined to a small clearing while the Dark Queen Samana, the Spike, and the Craven roam freely, seeking out a sacrificial victim from our world to add to her dead-alive flock.

  In our world, Meg and her sister Sue go to the Halloween party at their new school in Locust Valley on Long Island. There Meg comes up against her nemesis, the bully Kenny Stover. When he teases her, she humiliates him. Soon Meg and Sue are running for their lives: straight into the ruined cottage on Horse Hollow Road that proves to be a passage to the Halloween Wood!