Learning from his dying grandfather that a magical circus at the heart of his favorite bedtime stories is real, young Micah and his friend Jenny embark on a journey to claim a miracle from the circus's wondrous magician, the Lightbender.

A baby great horned owl, Second, so called because his sister, First, is already out of the nest, is reluctant to hunt for himself, but when his mother is injured he is forced out into the forest; Maureen is a human girl pulled out of her grandmother's violent home and placed with an aunt--but her Aunt Beatrice is involved in falconry and runs a mews where injured raptors can heal, and it is here Maureen and Second (now called Rufus) meet and learn...