Outside the back door of the house-on-the-hill lurks a cave, known as The Beast, who has to be fed one girl a year to fend off an evil spell cast on the family 198-years-ago. Inside it is a throat into which the girls are dropped; to where the family does not know, but if they scream, they die, otherwise, they simply disappear. The family has long ago become accustomed to their spell until Tieran, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, who is to be a keeper of the Beast in years to come, is pushed into the throat by her jealous, malicious brother. Tieran disappears, the family falls apart, and tears are shed. But Tieran is in another place, a New World, a place of magic and spells, where she is now a powerful witch with the power to overthrow the evil Queen and end the curse on her family