Emma Smallbone lives with her parents, a pesky younger sister and a big-headed older brother. At night she shares her bed with Swiper, the family tabby cat. Recently, Emma's experienced strange dreams, in which she is visited by an apparition she calls, "The Silver Lady." Emma discovers the Silver Lady is a ghost, who has selected her for a cryptic "on-earth undertaking." Reluctantly, she accepts the puzzling assignment with the proviso she has a helper to work with. School friend Kitty enters the story as the chosen helper. The girls embark on an historical-paper-chase-scary-adventure, which will take them back in time to Victorian England, then Australia, finally reaching the shores of the land known as the Long White Cloud - New Zealand.