In a perfect jumping-on point for new and returning readers, Tim Hunter begins his new role as a wanderer in the realms. Shut off from everyone and everything he knows, Tim slips through a magical rift and meets a strange group of travelers trying desperately to find their way home. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the realms, a powerful mythic force called the Wild Hunt is stirring back to life after a long absence.
The issue begins, unusually, with a summing-up page.
Tim is stuck in a storm outside, and is predictably unhappy with his choices and luck. He lost most of his belongings to Cyril, who took his pack. He puts on his mother's necklace, which turns out to indeed be a glamour stone, which makes him look like a younger version of his mother.
With the stone on, he accesses the Sight even more easily, and notices that the storm is in fact a Storm of Magic. He sees that there is a path that is dry, and takes it, knowing that it will likely lead to more adventures. He keeps the stone on, and remains looking like a teenage girl for much of the next several issues.
He sees many other magical creatures running from the storm, but they seem to not see the path. One small creature, who turns out to be a lost dream, falls in the path and joins Tim. They see a stagecoach riding by, and try to get a ride, but it doesn't stop.
A girl, Joh, who we last saw in issue 51, explains that the coach is for the dead. She introduces herself, and says she is trying to get back to her boss, Accasbel, and the Inn Between. She's lost because of the increasingly-bad storms. Tim introduces himself as Mary.
Joh has been collecting creatures from destroyed realms, or those who are lost, including the dancing bear in a tutu that has been seen in the background of many issues (Julie); Hugh, a monk who escaped hell; and Rosehip the flitling.
Hugh was a monk who killed himself so he could convert the heathens of hell. The storm has even opened the gates of hell, and he took that chance to leave.
Henry Lywood, a boy with a rocket pack, also joins them. They keep walking, but are concerned that they may be in the land of the dead. They enter an orchard; Tim warns them not to eat anything, or they will be stuck there. Then they come to a chasm; the land of the living is on the other side.
Henry tries to fly to the other side with a rope so they can get across, but crashes and explodes after he lands. He did get the rope across though, so they start to traverse the chasm. Before Tim crosses, he sees Henry, back on the dead side. He explains that he thinks he was already dead, and also ate some of the berries.
The dream is stuck halfway across the rope, and needs "Mary's" help to get across. She tells the dream that it belonged to Tim, and represented his fears, but Tim is no longer there; "he" has accepted his new identity as Mary. In the process, he loses the dream, and thus his fear of failure.
In a different realm, called Bar Equall, the people fight the storm as well. They are trying to keep their food stores safe, but then they find that the gates to other realms are open for the first time in 2000 years. They turn out to be the members of the Wild Hunt, and the Lord of the Hunt, regaining his hidden helmet, tells them to ride through the rest of the realms, where they have been banned by the Compact for millennia.
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