Jared’s recent bad behavior makes him the obvious suspect when his family suffers vandalism and assaults at their new home. To silence the accusations, he must rethink his childish attitude, discover the real culprit, and find a way to deal with the entity so that the crimes cease.

Jared reacts badly to his parents’ divorce. His grades suffer; he mopes, gets into a fight at school, and nearly gets expelled before he and his family move away. The old, decrepit house that they move to distresses him even more, and he complains bitterly about it, argues with his siblings, and is short with his mother.

The trouble starts with a sound in the walls, something that could be attributed to an animal like a squirrel. This is common in fantasy literature or haunted house literature, where the fantastical elements start subtly and escalate. The three Grace children trace the sounds to a cubbyhole filled with junk collected by some sort of small creature. They clear out the junk, hoping to make the little thing leave. They don’t know that the being in question is a type of faerie called a brownie that reacts violently to any mistreatment, converts into an angry boggart, and begins to exact vengeance on them.