Arabella lives in a normal suburb in Johannesburg. It seems her life is going to stay normal forever – until her father dies and she thinks she'll never get over the sadness of it. But then she discovers a hidden world filled with magical creatures in the garden, after being given a special mongongo nut by Khanyi the mealie lady. There are enemies in the garden too: hadedas, led by their king Ozymandias, who want to steal the mongongo nut for their own evil purposes. Arabella must lead her new-found friends to battle against the evil birds, but will they be strong enough to fight high up in the skies of Johannesburg, where lightning strikes and hadedas swoop down upon them?