"There's magic in the air, perhaps it arrived with you."

Bess Hooper is reluctantly dragged away on a two week holiday with her family. While away she meets the annoying Maisy who learns that Bess has just solved a mystery from a century ago and asks for her help to look for a family heirloom that has been missing for decades.

In an effort to avoid her, Bess escapes to the nearby woods that Maisy and her brother are forbidden to explore. Realising that she is not alone, Bess discovers a cottage in amongst the trees and gets to know the occupants, Grace and Patrick. Instantly falling for Patrick, she spends more time with them hoping for her very first kiss. But there's something very odd about it all, which Bess discovers when she invites her brother Tom along and they find the cottage in a derelict state.

Determined to get to the bottom of it, with the help of a badly drawn picture and the ramblings of an old woman, Bess finally works out what's happening, and in the process, solves the mystery of Kissing Gate Woods.