One day, when Sophie is attending the hat shop alone, the grandest customer she had ever seen flounces into the shop, demanding to see the famous hats. Before Sophie realizes what is happening, the Witch of the Waste has cursed her - suddenly Sophie looks and feels fifty years older; she has been transformed into an old crone. Mortified by her new appearance, Sophie flees town and heads for the hills. Looking for a walking stick, she finds a scarecrow stuck in the hedges. The scarecrow hops away. She finds a dog bound with rope and nearly strangled. But when the dog is freed, it too runs away. Night is falling and an old woman like Sophie needs shelter. Howl's moving castle comes into view, and in her new "old-woman" attitude, Sophie tries to enter the structure, something she certainly would not have dared to do before being cursed.

The interior of Howl's castle is much smaller than it appears on the outside. Sophie discovers that a fire demon named Calcifer lurks in the fire pit. An apprentice named Michael is learning spells. Howl himself is unexpectedly young, though still a powerful wizard. Sophie begins to clean up the messy room in order to prove that it is worth their while to let her stay. Howl is noncommittal, but he doesn't kick Sophie out. The longer Sophie remains in the castle, the more involved she becomes in the machinations of Howl (who doesn't seem to be nearly as diabolical as his evil reputation).

One of the coolest ideas in the book is that door to Howl's castle can open onto different realms. There are four setting on the dial - green, orange, black and purple. Twist the dial to the color you want, and when you open the door, you find a portal to a different part of the country, or a whole other world.

The characterizations are pretty good - Calcifer, Howl, Sophie and Michael all have well defined personalities. There is magic and spells galore (seven league boots! Humans transformed into dogs! The moving castle with its doorway to multiple worlds!) But what mystified me was the motivations of the characters. Sophie is cursed to be an old woman, yet never asks the powerful wizard Howl to remove the curse! Indeed, Sophie tries to hide from Howl the fact that she is actually a young woman. Calcifer recognizes that Sophie is under a spell, and promises that he can undo it if she will free him from his contract with Howl. Yet Sophie makes only the most half-hearted efforts to figure out how to free Calcifer. Howl's motivations remain opaque - he doesn't want to find the King's missing brother or the determine the fate of the Wizard Suliman (presumably murdered by the Witch of the Waste). He takes actions and then explains only later what he was trying to accomplish. The novel is interesting enough to keep reading, but the plot is more of one random scenario after another rather than a series of events leading toward a climax.

Ultimately there is a sudden climax. The Witch of the Waste is confronted. Secrets are spilled. A whole lot of hurried explanations are thrown out. I guess that the reason this book is so well loved is due to the magic and the characters, plus the movie is so well done. But I think that there are better books on the KCLS list of Fantasy Books for Children. I think I will read a few more of those.