Alicia Montoya, friendless and fatherless, runs away from home to escape a life of brutal abuse at the hands of Gary, the son of the house where her mother works as a maid. After hitchhiking across the country she finally comes to rest in a small Pennsylvania town. She is taken in by the kindly Kellers, meets her Prince Charming — Richard Whittington and his cat — and is adopted by her Faery Foster Parents, the slightly eccentric Mister and Mistress Peterson. Working together, Alice and Richard set to work to make their fortune and to conquer the devils pursuing Alice, not only Gary, but also her own feelings of inadequacy and her doubts of her self worth. It's a story involving Faery Foster Parents, opera, Vikings, life in a small town, Pedro the Shetland Pony, and the ultimate triumph of Good over Evil. Plus a bit of petty revenge.