In the Earth world, a boy dreams of faraway  lands to escape life with his horrible aunt.  In the Elf world, he wakes up with a  mysterious golden torch but without any clue  who he is ...

except for the compass he pulls from his pocket, engraved with one name: JAYBEN

Jayben discovers that many moons ago, a giant put a dark spell on the golden torch,  and the elves forgot everything that had come before. Now they hang precious memories in jars on trees, just to try to remember.

But a new darkness grows among them.