When Oliver Gibbons and his boat go missing in a summer storm, the worst is feared. But Oliver is alive, shipwrecked on the infamous island of Glandora.

Within the island’s mansion—with its stretching corridors, gloomy library, and forbidden cellars—Oliver encounters the reclusive inhabitants of the Philpott estate.

As the boy prepares to leave Glandora, little does he know that from Mistress Minerva, the self-proclaimed head of the household, to the mansion’s odd Dr. Sprocket, the island dwellers have other plans.