When Alice's grandmother, reclusive author of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies, Alice's mother is stolen by a figure claiming to come from the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set.

When Alice's grandmother, reclusive author of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies, Alice's mother is stolen by a figure claiming to come from the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set.

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get.