A boy betrayed by his father, a lonely girl with “no magic in her”, and a shapechanger stuck in the form of a poodle must band together to save an ancient world from a merciless enemy. Shaun doesn’t want to be a TreeTalker. But thick-trunked trees haunt Shaun’s dreams, overridden with his Hopi grandmother’s warning of a great evil, of a “two-heart who will snare you like an eagle seizing a mouse.” And then an old sycamore asks him for help. Bad enough to be able to hear a tree. Even worse is the huge curly-coated dog that lurks under the tree. Shaun finds dogs terrifying. Megan on the other hand, loves dogs. When she discovers a bedraggled, starving poodle, she feeds it, delighted to have a new friend. As for Riley O’Faolin, coming into this world in the shape of a poodle wasn’t his idea. To help save the ancient sycamore linked to his world’s survival, he recruits Shaun and Megan, dropping them into a world of magic, kidnappings, and agonizing choices. Engulfed in the enemy’s paralyzing despair, they must seek the love that surrounds them to find their way back to the light.