Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of the extraordinary events of Inkheart, and the story whose characters strode out of the pages and changed her life forever. But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater created from words, the need to return to the original tale has become desperate. When he finds a crooked storyteller with the magical ability to read him back into the story, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges back into the Inkworld of his past. Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and soon they find their way inside the book too. There they meet Fenoglio, the author of the original Inkheart, now living within his own story - but discover it much changed, and threatening to evolve in sinister ways he could never have imagined. But can Meggie, Farid and Fenoglio 'write' the wrongs of a charmed world about to be fought over by rival princes and rebels?