We first met the Owens in the glorious novel Practical Magic. We discovered the tragedy of the Owens siblings in Rules of Magic. Now we learn how it all began ... with a baby abandoned in a snowy English field in the 1600s. Under the care of gentle Hannah Owens, little Maria learns about the 'Unnamed Arts'. Maria has a gift for them - a gift that may well prove her undoing. When Maria is abandoned by the man she loves, she invokes the curse that will haunt her family for centuries. Because magic has rules and they must be followed. This is the lesson that Maria will carry with her for the rest of her life and pass on to her children and her children's children.