When he and his caravan come crashing down to Earth during a thunderstorm two weeks before Christmas, Santa is befriended by Charlotte and Ben, who try to help him save the holiday from the tricks and moneymaking schemes of Gerold Geronimus.
Dustfinger, a fire-eater is desperate to return to Inkheart and finds a crooked storyteller named Orpheus to help him. Eventually Meggie and Farid, Dustfinger's apprentice, both get caught inside the book, and the story evolves in a way neither could have imagined.