Twelve-year-old Marinka lives in a house that wanders around on chicken legs with her grandmother, a Yaga, who guides the dead to the afterlife and is training Marinka to be a Yaga too. But all Marinka wants is a friend. So when Marinka finds a possible friend, she's so excited that she breaks her grandmother's rules--causing her grandmother to disappear. Now it's up to Marinka to journey to the afterlife and find her grandmother before it's too late.