In a post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, a clan of aggressive people, the Nuru, plan the total destruction of the Okeke; but one member of the tribe manages to escape and wanders into the desert where she gives birth to a daughter, whose special powers will allow her to put an end to the genocide of her people.

In a dream a poor orphan is given a brush that brings to life everything she paints.

Jessie travels back to the magical world of the Realm to try to discover what has gone wrong in the Hidden Valley where the gnomes live and the fairy-apples grow.

Arianna and Sunchaser struggle to reclaim the Indigo Star in order to rescue the unicorns of Balinor.

Bored with her meals of cardboard, string, and sawdust, Nutmeg acquires from a genie a magic spoon to make some different dishes but winds up with more than she bargained for.

A young boy recounts the events of the summer when he had the services of an Arabian genie at his disposal.

A witch's worn-out broom serves a widow well, until her neighbors decide the thing is wicked and dangerous.

In a story loosely based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, an elf acquires from a miserable witch a magic pipe that allows him to transform things, including the mean-spirited Grand Duke who rules over a rat-infested town.

Despite gaining her freedom and being reunited with the family she was stolen from, Yelenda feels isolated in her new life, unable to relate to her new friends and relatives because of her past and struggling to find a place where she fits in.

The shiftling Kirra returns to her home of Danalustrous after a long journey and learns that her half sister, Casserah, has been proclaimed heir to the land but refuses to attend the social events required of her position, so Kirra shapeshifts into her sister to perform her duties and encounters more problems than she ever imagined.