Jericha Miller gets out of her car one dark winter evening and picks up a tiny doll lying on the pavement. And then without thinking she steps into a bright light and finds herself transported to another reality. At first, it seems as thought she is alone in this new world but she quickly discovers that there are inhabitants she mistakenly identifies as Stone Age people. Jericha names this place the Faraway Place.
She is unable to understand their language so she is taken to the Old One, an ancient woman who lives in a vast system of caves near the City where the People, as they call themselves, reside.
The Old One “heals” Jericha’s speech and she is suddenly able to understand their language. She then goes back to the City with the One Elder, Mishva to live with her family, learning about the people and their customs.
On a trip into the mountains with two trappers, Mishva’s brother Tolvar and his partner Bran, Jericha falls off of a cliff and is taken to the Old One for care. During her time in the caves recuperating, Jericha meets the little girl Tuli, who is the student of Mora, the Old One. Jericha comes to love the child, spending long hours with her, teaching her how to read and write and guiding her learning.
When spring arrives and they return to the City, Jericha meets Tuli’s widowed father and they fall in love. Soon however, the Old One says that Jericha has unfinished business to attend to and that she must return to her own time, present-day earth.
Back in her world Jericha discovers that her ex-husband, John Matthews is in prison – this is her unfinished business. During the process of undoing John’s imprisonment, the amulet that drew Jericha into the light is confiscated and without it she is lost and adrift. She cannot remember her time in the Faraway Place.
When she recovers the little amulet she remembers the Faraway Place and tries to return there. By mistake, Jericha is taken to yet another world that is nothing like the pristine world she remembers. This world is barren and polluted with poisoned air. All the healthy people live inside a vast metal city, in order to block out mutated survivors of genetic experimentation as well as toxic fumes. Jericha is captured but manages to escapes from this culture of repression. Her visit though, has spurred a few courageous people to rebel against the totalitarian regime.
Finally she manages to return to the Faraway Place, but ten years have passed in her absence. Joru, Tuli’s father has married another woman and Tuli is nearly grown.
Again, Jericha retreats to the caves with the Old One and Tuli and they continue their studies together. Through the Old One, Jericha uncovers the meaning of Ambolaja.
During the winter, Bran and Tolvar, the trappers, bring a man to the caves whom they have caught pillaging their traps for food. The man, Finneas Corley, is from earth’s future, a time when corporations rule, government is weak and many people live on other worlds. Finneas is a doctor who works for the government, spying on corporate interests and trying to subvert the government at the same time. Jericha doesn’t like Finneas and thinks he is dangerous.
It soon becomes apparent that something frightening is going on in the Faraway Place. Jericha is sure that Finneas is the culprit but the Old One advises her to work with him to discern what it all means.
Jericha and Finneas manage to solve the mystery and Mora, the Old One disappears. Jericha assumes Mora is dead. Tuli is now the Old One and she will live as the holder of the People’s memories.
Jericha and Finneas return to present-day earth, living a life of ease and wealth. Malva Matthews, Jericha’s first mother-in-law chooses to live close to them because she says she is “a heart relative.” It is here, nineteen years after their return to earth that their lives begins to shudder with new changes.