Jenifer and her mother are visiting Jenifer's uncle in Cornwall, where her mother grew up. While exploring the area surrounding Greyrocks, her uncle's house, she comes upon a menhir of black granite - an imposing, tall, standing stone - and when she stands in the shadow of it, she seems to hear chanting. When the chanting ends, she looks up ... and things have changed. She had gone into the past! She meets a boy named Perran, who turns out to be an ancestor of hers, and over the course of the month's vacation, she spends almost every day in the past with him. As her time in Cornwall draws to a close, Perran begs her to try to take him to the future so he can see the differences - however, when they both stand in the shadow of the menhir, things go horribly wrong - they find themselves in the far distant past, and enslaved to a Celtic tribe. The Druidic High Priestess looks exactly like Jenifer and, while Perran is enslaved by the chieftain of the tribe (or tuath), it appears there might be something ... special planned for Jenifer. Will Jenifer and Perran be able to survive their time in the tuath? Will they be able to escape, and return to their own time, and their own world? Or will they perish here, in the distant past?
I have loved stories that feature Celts and Celtic mythology ever since I was first introduced to The Chronicles of Prydain when I was 8. Later I got a book called "The Wizard Children of Finn" that had a similar idea to this one - that of modern children being swept back in time and living with a group of Celts - in this case a Gaelic group. Therefore, I found myself enjoying this story quite a lot, and eagerly searching for those little kernels of legend and truth that one finds in any fictional piece including the Celts - as if the ancients themselves get into the author's brain and add a few words to the story here and there to keep things more accurate. I was not disappointed. Fans of Celtic and British (especially Cornish) myths and legends, and the Celtic peoples in general, should enjoy this story a great deal. I would say that as long as a young reader is able to read the words, she is old enough to read this story - at the same time, it is entertaining and timeless enough to provide a satisfactory reading experience to adults as well. Definitely pick this one up!