Emma Smallbone is a thirteen-year-old girl. She lives with her parents, a pesky younger sister and a big-headed older brother. At night she shares her bed with Swiper, the family tabby cat. Recently, Emma has experienced a sequence of strange dreams. In these dreams she is visited by an apparition she calls The Silver Lady. Emma discovers that the Silver Lady is a ghost, who has selected her for a cryptic on-earth undertaking. Emma is both confused yet fascinated; reluctantly, she accepts the puzzling assignment with the proviso she has a helper to work with. School friend Kitty enters the story as the chosen helper. The girls embark on an historical-paper-chase-scary-adventure, which will take them back in time to England in the time of Queen Victoria - then to Australia, finally reaching the shores of the land known as the Long White Cloud - New Zealand.