Twelve-year-old Zita, orphan and housemaid, had resigned herself to a life of drudgery when a mysterious letter arrived, naming her the only living heir to the Brydgeborn fortune. Astonished, Zita takes herself off to a castle in the middle of the woods, where she discovers she is the long-lost daughter of a family of witches, who are charged with ferrying spirits into the land of the dead. Even more surprising, Zita’s mother and adopted siblings are frozen in perpetuity in the dining room. Now the mistress of the castle, Zita has only her servants, Minnifer and Bram, and the strict Mrs. Cantanker to rely upon to learn what it means to be a Brydgeborn witch. But Mrs. Cantanker has nefarious plans for Brydgeborn Castle, plans Zita must thwart if she has any hope of taking her true place as a witch and saving her family.