The tale of an amazing discovery which sets Gavin, his friend Caroline and his enterprising younger brother Thomas on an astonishing quest to find the Wand of Merlin, so it cannot be used to open the interdimensional portal to release the horrible Demogorgon, who will wreak havoc on the world. This tale includes a ferocious animal which roams the countryside by night, an uncouth orphanage director, an imperilled vicar's wife, a secret mini-kingdom in the New Forest, a band of menacing goblins, an army of hideous crones, a man who keeps his mad wife locked in a cage, a next door neighbour with a gun and an attitude problem and the wizard Merlin himself, still alive but not altogether stable.