Forced to stay with his aunt and uncle for the summer holidays, Tom Long is lonely and bored, until one night he hears the clock strike 13. He suddenly finds himself transported to a magical Victorian garden of the 1880s and meets a girl.
Tom Long starts off his summer holiday in quarantine when his brother Peter catches measles and his imagination takes him back to the Victorian era.
Tom enters the garden of his dreams but cannot understand why nobody has mentioned it nor can he understand the importance of the grandfather clock.
Tom discovers that his nightly visits to the garden are not necessarily journeys into a bright summer day when he finds the garden threatened by a storm.
Tom has been having a wonderful time exploring the garden but many surprises are in store.
Tom feels that things are beginning to change in the garden and also in Hatty.
Tom and Hatty skate to great adventure along a frozen river.