From the introduction: Off in the country side by a large city lays a small home owned by the Mahowald family. Life is normal away from the life of the big city but as Mr. Mahowald was injured and could no longer work and support the family his wife noticed strange things happening around the house. Things moving from where she left them, vegetables turning into candy, and the house itself began changing colors. Their daughter, Penelope, was noticed one day talking to someone in her room and when her mother went in to check on her she saw her daughter talking to a large creature with arms like a bear, legs like a spider, a head of a pigeon, and a body of a tiger. When Penelope's mother screamed the creature vanished in a puff of smoke and her daughter collapsed. Now a doctor specializing in mental conditions believes he has figured out how to help the young girl with his new device, though he has not tested it fully yet. You all are the only ones brave enough, or stupid enough, to reply to the doctor's request for "assistants".