Their mother dead, their father missing - Morag and her brother Boyd are packed off to live with Wulfric Kennetson, their parents' childhood guardian.Uncle Wulf seems stern and strange. He's the laird of a remote castle in the far north-west of Scotland; his family retainers are unusually short, his two huge dogs have dark green fur. There's an enormous, mischievous cat, a tame crow called Duffy... and the animals Rag and Boyd discover in the castle's secret backyard are even more fantastic. Beyond the ancient castle walls there's another strange and beguiling world... There are fabulous creatures from legends, and peoples they've only read about in folk-tales, but in this world all of them are real... and many are far more dangerous than Rag and Boyd realise.