Darkness, no fourteen-year-old should fear. Or so Bastian believes until he discovers that in the dark hides a terror known only to old English legends - a terror that's stalked him since the day he was born.

England's Sylphic Kingdom, peopled with its Forest Children and Faeries, its Oakmen and Sunwalkers and Sprites, awaits the coming-of-age of its hero - the Sun Child. For at the hand of a Wight Witch, risen to great power, the Sylphic Kingdom stands on the bring of destruction. And with its fall, so too will perish the natural world.

To discover what hunts him, to understand why, Bastian must realize that some legends, holding both wonders and terrors, are real. And to protect his family, Bastian - a boy who fears the dark, who fears the fight - must face dire challenges and win Sylphic allies. And he must wake his courage. For to unlock the secret to the Wight Witch's defeat, he must embrace who he was born to be, even at the cost of his life.