Valen Grimm first rode a horse in the most unlikley of places. When he finally arrived to where it brought him, he witnessed giants in battle (at least that is what he thought they were) and to make matters worse, met tigers nearly the size of elephants. But before all that, he had been alone on Had Wink, an island in the Cold Northern Ocean, fallen out of time. Unable to use his legs when night falls and at other very inconvenient times (going down stairs for instance) he is imprisoned in an old mansion, deep in a dark forest where there are no other children to be found and always watched under the horrible eye of Bendy Grimm, his father.
When his tutor disappears a ship with black sails arrives by The Great Terrible Storm, and with it strangers who've come looking for him. Though his legs are failing him, Valen is determined to find his beloved tutor. On his journey he discovers boys on the island that he never knew existed. With the help of his new friends, they discover something hidden about the island, meet an odd, but beautiful girl with even stranger parents, and unravel something deeply mysterious which sends Valen and his new friends on an epic and at times dark, adventure. Having to flee the island for their lives can they escape before some hideous creatures capture and bring them to an even worse end before it is too late? Will Valen have the courage to go to a place he cannot see, with a strange creature he barely trusts?