The protagonist of this story is Nancy, who once discovered a magical portal and ventured into another world - she found herself in a Landscape of the Dead. But rather than a land of horror, Nancy discovered that she loved the shadowy silent corridors. She practiced staying motionless for a day at time, slowing her heartbeat to just one per minute. Mute servants pressed a sponge to her lips, the only sustenance needed in those gloomy corridors. Despite her desire to remain forever, Nancy is sent back to Earth. Nancy longs to return to that dark domain, but there is little prospect of her successfully finding another entry portal. Nancy's parents are alarmed by her wild claims of magical lands. Finally, unable to persuade Nancy to accept reality, they enroll her in Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. But this home, located in an isolate manor, is quite different than Nancy's parents surmise. Eleanor West herself is a returnee from a magical world, she knows that other dimensions do exist, and that there are children who long to return to them. Eleanor gathers these children who desperately long to return to another plane but cannot. Eleanor tries to assist them, she believes their claims of alternate universes, but Eleanor also counsels them just how unlikely another crossover event is, no matter how much the children wish otherwise.