When a very bad, seemingly invincible, fairy attacks eleven-year-old Clemency Pogue, the girl remembers Peter Pan and shouts, "I don't believe in fairies!" over and over until the fairy drops dead. A curmudgeonly hobgoblin named Chaphesmeeso informs Clem that her declaration has also killed six other fairies. Some are good and some are bad, but even if it was a mistake, it is now Clem's duty to embark on a globe-trotting quest to right the wrongs she has set in motion.