Sparrow Moreau is a witch. She doesn't know that yet. What the fifteen year-old does know is that, lately, strange things have been happening to her. She thinks it's because she's a klutz, but she's wrong. Sparrow is the target of a runaway spell that has homed in on her blossoming "talent". As they say, it's complicated. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her father, Reverend David Moreau, pastor of Holy Family Episcopalian church in San Francisco. He's terrified of Sparrow's growing abilities and wants her to suppress them.

Sparrow isn't sure she can ¿ or that she should, because there's something else looming over her-a 500 year old curse that has followed the Sutherlands-her mother's family-from Scotland to America.