A thief from a computer role-playing game finds himself wandering the streets of Chicago. Ruth Arlen changes places with the charismatic mage Smith from her favorite computer game, to the shock of her brother and sister, who’ve never met a gnome. In the patchwork game world Ruth comes face to face with Ruggedo (once of Oz) and her other game characters as well as her classmate Jesse, a novice player. They’re caught in a patchwork world, where bits of games are being imported, creating a hodgepodge of rules. The mystery centers on violent storms above an island in the middle of a poisonous lake. Ruth and Jesse must reach the island to discover who’s controlling the game—and how to get back to Chicago!