WARNING: COntains Spoilers

This is a collection of three short stories which are really ethereal and funny. The first features a group of dwarves who serve a king with a naughty daughter named the Infanta. Joachim is the name of the narrator who tells of the Winter palace and the conditions they are subjected to in the king's absence by another servant Don Emiglio. The next tells of a boy named COlin who goes with his father and other villagers to a mysterious island for trade where there are some very frightening fairies. Colin gets trapped there with a girl named Janet. At this island everything is changing and not much is real. They finally escape though, Phew! The last story is about a girl who lives with her mum, dad and grandfather. Her grandfather says he is sick and can't help around the farm but doesn't want to go to the doctor's therefore he doesn't. The girl wants to visit her granny so she ventures out whilst it is snowing and gets lost. A woman in a beanie approaches her and the girl think sshe is a witch but she is actually her granny. Mayne makes the whole scene very scary even though the 'witch' isn't all that menacing in appearance. These stories are very likeable and worth a second read.