Winter comes, and with it the annual Apple Hollow ice sculpting exhibition. Trixie Lyal is dragged down to the river one cold midnight to watch the display of magic. The winter wonderland of ice turns to a nautical nightmare when a ghostly ship appears on the river. The strangest part isn't the vessel itself, but that it's off-schedule for its reappearance. Trixie and Orion are tasked with finding out why the ghostly galleon has returned early, but their troubles only multiply when they stumble on a small girl in big trouble.
Now they're stuck babysitting as their search for the truth leads them from one end of the hollow to the other. Witches, wizards, and a few things in-between stumble into their path as they try to stay one step ahead of a creeping fog that threatens them, and their new small charge. The final problem? They have only three nights to figure out the truth and then the ship disappears, along with their answers. It's a race to find solve the mystery before they become a part of it.