In the English countryside at the dawn of the Victorian era, life moves at a leisurely pace. In the town of Wall, so named for an imposing stone barrier that divides the village from an adjacent meadow, armed sentries guard the sole gap to keep the curious from wandering through. Only once every nine years do they relax their vigil when a market fair unlike any other comes to the meadow. In Wall, young Tristan Thorn falls in love with the cold and distant Victoria Forester. He vows to retrieve a fallen star for Victoria, crosses the ancient wall, and enters a world strange beyond imagining.