An unnamed narrator, later implied to be Juniper Eastwood, describes what the world is like at the end of the 19th Century in America. Once, witchcraft was common until it was ruthlessly suppressed. During their childhood, the Eastwood sisters learned spell craft from their grandmother, Mama Mags, who advised that “proper witching […] only ever takes three things: the will to listen to it, the words to speak with it, and the way to let it into the world. The will, the words, and the way” (2). Although witches have disappeared from the world by 1893, when the novel takes place, the narrator concludes by declaring that there will be witches in the world again someday.

The black-haired, high-spirited, 17-year old James Juniper Eastwood flees from law enforcement on the spring equinox of 1893. She steps off a train in New Salem, 200 miles from her rural home in Crow County, where she is wanted for the murder of her father. Limping badly from a leg injury, Juniper spies a wanted poster of herself and tries to hide her features under her cloak. When a policeman becomes suspicious, she casts a confusion spell on him and slips away.