The novel’s main plot generally mirrors the narrative arc of a fairy tale, and metafictional elements of fairy tales and children’s literature are featured throughout the novel. The main referential element is Daffyd Llewellyn’s book, Eleanor’s Magic Doorway. But there is also the story he tells Eleanor about her birth (with the tiger and the pearl), which Ben teaches Bertie after he has been placed in Flo’s care. Furthermore, the plot in Eleanor’s Magic Doorway has a prodigious number of similarities with C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Moreover, in Chapter 2, Loeanneth is described by Alice as being “an estate [that] sat deep in a dell, surrounded by thick, briar-tangled woods, just like houses must in fairy tales” (7). These many references to fairy tales establish a magical perspective through which the entire novel can be analyzed.

The novel’s most dramatic events (Constance murdering Daffyd and Theo’s disappearance) take place on Midsummer’s Eve. Celebrations of the summer solstice, despite having a heavy Christian theme in the modern era, predate Christianity. It was a festival that celebrated fertility and the hope of a bountiful harvest. The bonfire is a central element to the celebration, as depicted in the novel, and is used to ward off evil spirits.