When Meggie was a baby her father, Mo, read her a story from a book called Inkheart. When he was reading the book, Meggie's mother and three cats got sucked into the book and 3 men named Capricorn, Basta, and Dustfinger appeared in their place. Mo realizes at this point that he has a magical ability----what he reads out loud from a book can turn to reality, but there must always be a replacement for what leaves the book. Meggie is now a young girl about 10 years old. Everything has been going fine in her life since that incident and the three men have not been heard from. Meggie has forgotten the whole episode. However, one day Dustfinger shows up at her house and warns Mo that Capricorn is coming to their house to get the book back so that he can return to the story. Meggie and her father are worried and leave their home to move in with a relative, Elinor, to avoid Capricorn. Capricorn's gangmembers kidnap Mo and take the book, Inkheart, with them. What no one knows is that Elinor has substituted another book for Inkheart. Meggie and Elinor try to find Mo, but they are captured by Capricorn and his men. Dustfinger helps free Meggie's family, but they are pursued by Capricorn. Basta is also working with Capricorn and kidnaps Meggie and Fenoglio, the author of Inkheart, to try to trick Mo into trying to rescue his daughter. Capricorn and Basta secretly do not really want to return to the book---instead they want Mo to read about riches (gold and silver and jewels) and a special friend that they can retrieve from the book. The rest of the story is about how Meggie develops the same magical power to bring out items from a book, and how Fenoglio writes a new story for Meggie to read that may save the day.