Ten-year-old Mary Reed is known by those closest to her to be a reflective, intelligent, sensitive, unassuming young girl who abounds in the joys of growing up in the sparsely populated rural village of Bloomville. However, those family members and friends living in the harshly challenging woodlands of the sweeping pine forests of northern Wisconsin in the mid-1940's are fully unaware of the earth-shaking secret she conceals from them. Living within a matriarchal family, Mary, youngest of three children, inherits strength, wisdom and spirit of optimism and caring from her mother and grandmother. Above all else, she gains from them an understanding of the vibrant forces held in the wilds of nature. As much at ease in exploring the bordering swampland behind her home as she is in sharing dreams and laughter with friend s and her classmates in the village 's one-room schoolhouse, Mary develops a familial kinship with the creatures of the woods. Something separates Mary from other children, a strange power within her that frightens and saddens her and will forever remain hidden. She first notices this phenomenon that makes her different in the early years. Unlike other children, she is never ill, injured, or fearful of anything. Above all, there is the matter of "the light," a weird aberration that gives her unimaginable abilities to alter physical actions of people and objects. Unable to comprehend this oddity, she conceals it out of embarrassment , wishing for it to remain her secret. In the opening chapter of the book, Mary has rescued her brother Tom and sister Sandy from an attack by a mean bully of a man, notorious throughout their rural township for cruel senseless behavior. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that this bully, a man named Curt Olmeyer, is following orders from the local deputy-sheriff as part of a plot to drive away the sheriffs family and take his job. Their plot begins with harassment of people and evolves into the kidnapping of a young girl. Mary’s intervention locates and saves the victim, but Mary is hesitant to tell adults what she suspects. However, her opinionated and emotional older sister Sandy shares her belief in Olmeyer's role in the crime with girlfriends of the two sisters. The girls, Peggy, Bonnie, and Sandy agree to emulate the antics of comic strip heroes and go to the Olmeyer's farm to acquire evidence to implicate him. Mary disagrees with their idea, but goes along with it to protect them if need be. Peggy arranges for the girls to be driven out to a pond for skating. The pond is located near the Olmeyer farm. Neither the parents nor Tom or "boyfriend" Herbert knows of the girls plans. While at the farm, the girls find an abused dangerous creature waiting for them and soon learn the absent Olmeyers, Curt and his innocent and abused special needs younger brother, lzzy, are away from their house , kidnapping a second child. Mary's village is shaken by the news of the separate kidnappings of two children. For one the few times in her young life, her latent magical powers are unleashed to thwart the criminals' plans to harm the children, but the confrontation with the mastermind, the sinister deputy sheriff, and his deranged, but goofy henchman brings the struggle to her front door. Intense, powerful, exciting and humorous face -offs between Mary and the culprits continue to escalate until a climatic confrontation forces the adults in the community to discover the plot of the evil doers to bum down the school building on the evening of the annual Christmas program's final rehearsal. It is at the schoolhouse where the subplots are resolved within the flurry of Mary neutralizing the criminal boss while his accomplice flees to face a fatal confrontation with his own conscience. In the ensuing days, calm settles across the village and as Christmas day draws to a close and darkness descends upon the frozen swampland bordering the Reed hom