An Author's Odyssey

The fifth installment of The Land of Stories series opens in the Otherworld, the series' name for the real world. Mrs. Peters, a retiring elementary school principal, attends her farewell banquet. A class photo reminds her of twins Alex and Conner Bailey, who transferred away years earlier under mysterious circumstances. That night, she visits her old classroom, and the twins appear in a flash of light from the fairy-tale world, a parallel dimension where classic fairy-tale characters live. Mrs. Peters reveals she has always suspected this world was real: As a sick child, a woman in a sparkling dress visited her in the hospital, and Alex confirms the woman was their late grandmother, the Fairy Godmother. Conner urgently needs the portfolio of short stories Mrs. Peters saved from his school days. She hands them over after he promises to continue writing.

The fairy-tale world is in crisis. The Masked Man, whose true identity is Lloyd Bailey, the twins' uncle, has used a stolen potion to recruit villains from classic literature. The Wicked Witch of the West, the Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook have each brought armies into the fairy-tale world, conquering every kingdom and seizing the Northern Palace. When the Masked Man orders the captured royal families executed, Jack and Goldilocks, longtime allies of the twins, orchestrate a rescue: The Tin Woodman poses as the executioner and triggers a trapdoor, while Robin Hood's Merry Men, Peter Pan, and the Lost Boys fight off pursuers. The rescued royals and hundreds of refugees hide in an abandoned dwarf mine, waiting for the twins, who disappeared while seeking the Fairy Council, the ruling body of fairies.

The literary villains, furious that the Masked Man failed to deliver on his promises, stage a coup. The Wicked Witch orders her flying monkeys to drop him from the sky. He survives and, while hiding in the forest, overhears the witch Morina propose a secret alliance with the literary villains. Morina reveals that the witches plan to invade the Otherworld after cursing Alex with enchanted mirror dust to turn her into a weapon they can control. Morina intends to betray the other witches: Once they exhaust themselves, she and the literary villains will steal the conquered territory. She also reveals she has kidnapped the Masked Man's son, Emmerich, as leverage. Stunned to learn he has a child, the Masked Man steals Captain Hook's revolver and follows Morina, determined to find the boy.

In the Otherworld, the twins plan to pour portal potion on Conner's short stories, enter each one, and recruit heroic characters to form an army. They ask their mother, Charlotte, and stepfather, Bob, for help. Charlotte, frantic with worry, grounds the twins on what turns out to be their fifteenth birthday. After a tense family dinner where Alex explains the crisis, including that the Fairy Council has been turned to stone, Charlotte and Bob agree to help. Four former classmates called the Book Huggers overhear the conversation from the next booth.

The twins enter "Starboardia," a pirate adventure set in the Caribbean. They board the Dolly Llama, captained by Auburn Sally, a fierce pirate based on Goldilocks. After Conner proves he created her by revealing her secrets, Auburn Sally agrees to a deal: The twins will help her defeat the brutal pirate Smoky-Sails Sam using a booby-trapped fortress, and she will join their fight. In a climactic battle, Sam is crushed by falling boulders, and the crew steps through the portal into the Otherworld, landing the ship in Charlotte and Bob's backyard pool.

In "Galaxy Queen," the twins board a spaceship commanded by the Cyborg Queen, a robotic monarch based on Red Riding Hood who collects habitable planets. In exchange for exterminating enormous alien insects on a planet she wants, the twins secure a thousand Cyborg soldiers.

Meanwhile, Bree Campbell, Conner's friend, travels to Germany with the Sisters Grimm, distant cousins who monitor portals between dimensions, to investigate Emmerich's kidnapping. At Neuschwanstein Castle, the Masked Man emerges through the portal with Emmerich, whom he has manipulated by posing as the twins' uncle. Having discovered that Emmerich's blood carries fairy-tale magic, the Masked Man plans to drain it to restore his own powers. He takes Bree, Emmerich, and Cornelia, the Sisters Grimm's pilot, hostage at gunpoint and forces them to fly to the twins' home.

In "The Ziblings," the twins meet Bolt, a young superhero belittled by his older siblings for his weak powers. When the villain called the Snake Lord captures the older siblings at the Eiffel Tower, Conner gives Bolt a speech about self-belief. Alex magically transports them to Paris, where the confrontation triggers Bolt's full powers: He channels lightning through the tower, destroying the Snake Lord and freeing his siblings. Afterward, Conner tells Alex she was his true champion, the first person whose encouragement gave him the confidence to write.

Charlotte accompanies Conner into "The Adventures of Blimp Boy," set in 1930s India. During an overnight blimp flight, Conner reveals that Charlotte is woven throughout his writing: Auburn Sally's hair matches hers, and Bolt's suit matches her nursing scrubs, because her strength inspired both characters. At the Pyramid of Anesthesia, Conner retrieves a talisman that grants control over a thousand mummified soldiers.

With the army assembled at Saint Andrew's Children's Hospital, Goldilocks goes into labor just as the Masked Man arrives with his hostages. He forces Charlotte to prepare a blood transfusion to drain Emmerich's blood, then steals an ambulance with Charlotte, Goldilocks, and Emmerich. Conner frees the remaining hostages and chases the ambulance. Using his binder, he accidentally sends the vehicle into Bree's short story, "Cemetery of the Undead," which Mrs. Peters mixed into the portfolio. Inside a mausoleum, Charlotte injects the Masked Man with a hidden sedative and escapes with Emmerich. At midnight, the dead rise from their graves. Bo Peep, Emmerich's deceased birth mother, confronts the Masked Man. He fires his last bullet, but it passes harmlessly through her. He stumbles into an empty grave, where decaying hands drag him underground, and a tombstone appears: "HERE LIES LLOYD BAILEY, BELOVED BY NONE." Charlotte delivers Goldilocks and Jack's son, whom they name Hero.

Back at the hospital, the Tin Woodman reports that a creature that escaped from the Northern Palace dungeon found the hidden mine and turned every refugee to stone, including the royal families. Then Red Riding Hood screams from down the hall. While Conner was in the cemetery, the witch Morina infiltrated the hospital and blew the cursed mirror dust into Alex's face. The dust, crafted from fragments of an ancient demonic mirror and enchanted by every witch in the fairy-tale world, fills Alex with uncontrollable rage and despair. Her eyes glow, her hair rises, and she transforms into a destructive force beyond her control.

The book ends at the New York Public Library, where Alex pleads with a security guard to find her brother before the curse overtakes her. Moments later, she blasts him across the hall, levitates through the doors, and brings the iconic lion statues to life with lightning. Police arrive but are powerless. In the final scene, President Katherine Walker is pulled from a meeting in the Oval Office. Her Chief of Staff describes the situation in New York City as "magic."