For dreamer Clare, a chance encounter with old family acquaintance Marcus brings up haunting memories of a childhood holiday, as they try to come to terms with the events and magic that have shaped their lives. They meet by chance in a department store, having not seen one another since a long-ago summer in Guernsey that was marred by tragedy. He lost his son, Tom, in inexplicable circumstances; she was Tom's friend and the last person to see him alive. The novel flits backwards and forwards in time, from the present-day affair fuelled by grief and loneliness, to the summer when Tom went missing - a time filled with sunshine and enchantment, moving inexorably towards heartbreak. The Magic Places is a spellbinding tale of the power of stories and imagination.