In her second chronicle, Bekka of Thorns, hedge-dwelling bendo dreen, or bramble dwarf, and her shapeshifting sorceress jrabe best friend Kar journey to break through the Barrier blocking the Danken Wood on the world of Boad. They are on a mission to learn from the legendary lavender witch, the Babba Ja Harick, the true story of how the Carven Flute, or Jo Bree, came to be lost by the witch long before the portals linking Boad to Earth had been sealed. Success brings the two friends to the cottage of the good witch. She reluctantly tells them about the Carven Flute and how she used it to search for her sister, who long ago had fled to Earth down the portal located at the bottom of the Well of Shells. The search proved to be an unhappy success when Babba Ja Harick was guided by the Flute to her sister's gingerbread cottage deep in a wood. Once there, the good witch realized she had to perform an unthinkable deed to save a pair of younglings. Having heard the story, Bek and Kar, with new clues to follow, undertake a flight to the Wide Great Sea and a visit to the city of jrabes in search of the lost Carven Flute, all to solve one mystery and uncover another one concerning the reopening of the sealed portals to Earth.