In this immense no-man’s land, Joe discovers The Stranger's Guide, a book charting this labyrinthine world without time or place, written to protect the last magical places on earth. Learning to travel by the moon, the boy is hunted by sinister forces hell-bent on taking possession of the book, the house and everything in it.

Crossing such diverse landscapes as Twenties New York, Fifties New Orleans and Victorian Britain, Joe discovers that behind each of the mysterious house’s thirteen doors are friends as well as foes; a fellowship sworn to protect the sacred spaces – and who might hold the secret to the boy’s missing parents and his ultimate escape.