12-year-old twins Matt & Emily Calder are Animare: they can bring art to life & enter paintings at will. They must do everything in their power to prevent a breach in Hollow Earth: a supernatural place that holds all the demons devils & creatures ever imagined. The Hollow Earth Society are getting closer to finding the key that will release the beasts: an ancient bone quill whose powers can be only be used by a powerful Animare. The quill has been lost for centuries but important clues to its whereabouts lie somewhere on the island of Era Mina
- as does the entrance to Hollow Earth itself. Matt & Em must find the quill & protect it through their drawings through certain famous paintings & ultimately deep into the mists of time itself. But their lives in the relative safety of Auchinmurn Abbey are thrown into confusion with the arrival of a newcomer who threatens to ruin everything they have worked for. All too soon Matt makes a fateful decision which forces him to make a terrible choice
- save his family or save the world?