Something is menacing Mundham Farm. Does it come from outside – or within? Who or what are the Samdhya, the supernatural people described in the old handwritten diaries Tom finds in his uncle’s house? As Tom starts to uncover the truth and learn new details about his parents' death, he is confronted with a stark choice: on the one hand, infinite power; on the other, freedom. Which will he choose? Jack tries to win Tom over by offering to show him his dead parents, whom Tom longs to see, and for a while he is taken in by false images of his mother and father; but when he finally witnesses the scene of his parents’ death by drowning, the awful realisation dawns that it was Jack who summoned up the terrible storm that swept over the boat and killed them. When Jack imprisons Kit, Zita and Tom in what appears to be a glass box, but is really a kind of parallel world, it takes all of Zita’s considerable magical powers to help them escape, but they are not free for long. Tom confronts Jack on several occasions, but Jack is very powerful and always emerges victorious. When the awful sound of the Samdhya wardrums announces that they are gathering and are about to descend on the farm to rescue the captive, Tom knows he must find a way to overcome his enemy. Once Jack is defeated, trapped inside his own magical creation and flung to his death, the farm and its inhabitants are released from the painful spells in which he had enmeshed them, and peace is restored between the Samdhya and the humans.