Finley McPhee holds the scorpion key, which makes him the Defender of the Emporium in the small town of Applecross, Scotland, but now Aiby Lily and Finley's brother Doug are apparently lost in an other-worldly place called the passages, and the evil Semueld Askell has told him that if he does not surrender the key within twenty-four hours, they will be lost forever--and that is only one of his problems.