It’s Gwyn Griffiths’ birthday, but celebrations are frowned on, as it is also the anniversary of his sister’s disappearance on the mountains above his house.
On his ninth birthday Gwyn is given a brooch, a scarf, a piece of seaweed, a tin whistle and a small broken horse by his grandmother and told to give them to the wind.
The first thing he gives to the wind is the brooch which comes back as the snow spider and suddenly magic is in his life, real and with consequences and responsibilities.
The trilogy covers from his ninth to his thirteenth birthday and a variety of adventures all of whom require him to employ his wits and to embrace the magician within.
Over the course of the trilogy Gwyn and his friend Nia has to battle otherworldly beings, icy children, an evil prince that has possessed one of their relatives.
The main storyline is about a boy whose older sister vanished many years ago when she wandered into the snow. She basically wandered out one night when it was snowing and never came back.