Ashley, who has recently moved from Baltimore to a new town with her widowed mother, finds an antique doll buried in old Miss Cooper's garden and discovers she can enter a ghostly turn-of-the-century world by going through a hole in the hedge.
Having just moved into the West Virginia home they inherited from a distant relative, twelve-year-old Jen is surprised that her father is already dating a local antiques dealer, but more surprised by what the spooky woman really wants.