Temora Murphy lives in an immaculate house, with a controlling mother. The only other children she sees are the ''shiny'' girls her mother selects for her as friends. Girls who tease her for her size and shyness. To escape, she reads books about adventure and magic, which she finds in a black pearl box at the bottom of the garden, beneath the Bloodwood tree. Then, at a party for her twelfth birthday, Temora Murphy makes another wish. And with that wish, Temora Tempest's life alters forever.