Mina loves the night. This is when she feels anything is possible and her imagination is set free. One night, she decides to use the blank notebook that’s been lying on the table forever. As she writes, Mina makes discoveries both trivial and profound about herself and her world, her thoughts and her dreams. 

The Watson family moves to Stoneygate, an old coal-mining town, to care for Kit's recently widowed grandfather. When Kit meets John Askew, another boy whose family had both worked and died in the mines, Askew invites Kit to join him in playing a game called Death. Kit's association with Askew takes him into the mines where the boys look to find the childhood ghosts of their long-gone ancestors.

Liam and his friend Max are playing in their neighborhood when the call of a bird leads them out into a field beyond their town. There, they find a baby lying alone atop a pile of stones --- with a note pinned to her clothing. Mystified, Liam brings the baby home to his parents. They agree to take her in, but police searches turn up no sign of the baby’s parents. Finally they must surrender the baby to a foster family, who name her Allison.

Visiting her in Northumberland, Liam meets Oliver, a foster son from Liberia who claims to be a refugee from the war there, and Crystal, a foster daughter. When Liam’s parents decide to adopt Allison, Crystal and Oliver are invited to her christening. There, Oliver tells Liam about how he will be slaughtered if he is sent back to Liberia. The next time Liam sees Crystal, it is when she and Oliver have run away from their foster homes, desperate to keep Oliver from being sent back to Liberia.

In a cave where the two are hiding, Liam learns the truth behind Oliver’s dark past --- and is forced to ponder what all children are capable of.

Ten-year-old Michael's baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he discovers a human being --- or a strange kind of beast --- in the garage. Together Michael and his new friend Mina carry the creature out into the light, and Michael's world changes forever.