Belinda Nuggett almost managed to do it. She almost managed to convince her father that he should go and get a proper job and stop messing about trying to invent something before he ends up killing himself and leaving her an orphan.
He goes to visit the owner of the local custard factory about a "special" invention he has been working on and fails to return. As she tries to work out what to do next, she is attacked by the terrible Beast of Bodmin. Her rescue comes in the shape of a pony who gives her a stone that grants her the power to see into the world of Cornish fairies.
Befriended by two elves and a beautiful fairy, she makes a journey to the fairies underground city. There, she learns of a past war between the fairies and their arch enemy, gnomes. The gnomes were defeated at the time, and their powers imprisoned in a casket known as the Securious. The casket was thought to have been lost on the Titanic, but it turns out the gnomes have managed to recover it. Terrible things will happen if they manage to crack the codes that keep it tightly shut.
The gnomes have now reformed and are building something beneath the factory, and Belinda's father's invention has something to do with it. The machine will enable the gnomes to dig down to the source of the fairies powers and wage a war that could be unstoppable. The fairies cannot just walk into the factory and stop the plan, as the gnomes have ensured their secrecy. So Belinda is given some magic in a bizarre ritual involving some dirt and a dead fairy, and handed a wand to help her cast a single gnome-repelling spell.
To help her, the two elves and the fairy, they are introduced to a vegetarian cat who knows the factory like the back of his paw and who knows exactly where the gnomes are hiding out. Belinda has until midnight to find a way into the factory, plant the curses that will destroy the machine, recover the casket, and rescue her father. The path isn't going to be easy. She has to battle gnomes and their goblin guard-dogs, run the gauntlet with the human security guards, and avoid being captured. Along the way she discovers how her mother really died, a love found and lost, and what someone dreadful is really planning.
