Emily Starr is an imaginative young girl who has lived an isolated life with her father at The Hollows in the country. She has The Sight, as she calls it, which allows her to see into the past and the future. After her father dies, she is sent to live at New Moon Farm with her stern Aunt Elizabeth Murray, her kind but timid Aunt Laura, and her cousin Jimmy, a gentle man who people persist in saying is “off.” Emily promises her father she will hang on hard to herself and clashes with Aunt Elizabeth who “is determined to make her like every other child in Blair Water.” But when Emily falls gravely ill, Elizabeth realizes how much she loves her, and Emily comes to understand she can be Emily of The Hollows and Emily of New Moon Farm—and a hundred other places as well.