Once it had been a great forest where, in the beginning, the Fairfaxes lived at Fairfax manor But now it was Streets, and the Fairfaxes had dwindled too It is Isobel Fairfax to whom the story belongs - Isobel, who drops into pockets of time and out again Isobel is sixteen and awaiting the return of her mother, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest