Walking home from school one day Zoe suddenly finds herself in another place entirely, the kind of pretty, rural place she has often daydreamed about. In this world she is befriended by Elizabeth and Ralph, who express no surprise that she has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Zoe gradually learns more about The Land and its ways: the people are warm and caring, though very old fashioned and strict... and great believers in corporal punishment. Zoe can't believe that Rebecca, Elizabeth's daughter, is spanked on her bare bottom for arriving home late after talking to a boy. Zoe is equally surprised when she too gets her first ever spanking for saying something disrespectful about her own mother. Thus begins a strange acclimatization for Zoe, a girl from a one-parent family often left to her own devices by her career-focused mother, a girl full of anger and unhappiness... who begins to change through the application of loving discipline. Torn between two lives and two worlds, which one will she ultimately choose...?