Charlie is seventeen and lives with his parents in a converted barn in the English countryside. Madly in love with Marie, who works with him part-time at the local nursery, he has a serious bike accident and falls into a coma. A bank of equipment in the hospital keeps his physical body alive, but he wakes up in a magic valley, where he is welcomed by a wizard named Shamir, who lives there with an ancient tribe of elves.

Charlie is one of only two people to have survived the transition into the magical realm in three hundred years.

As Charlie matures and learns the ways of the elfin community, Shamir's sister, Gemma, who owns the nursery where Marie and Charlie work, takes Marie on a parallel journey of initiation in this world.

Mystery, tragedy and love envelop them as they travel to Gemma's property in Provence, where they hope to contact Charlie through the elves that still inhabit Gemma's land. But Charlie can only straddle both worlds for a limited amount of time.

Will the elves be able to help Charlie enough to open the doorway to their land and his only way home, or will he die like the one before him?