Late one night Nicholas sees a witch enter his bedroom and hears her say some magic words. When he wakes up the next morning, it doesn't take him long to realize something very strange is going on, especially when he pulls at his whiskers.
Tricia can't stand her older brother Richie, who can do everything better than she can. She makes a wish on a shooting star to be able to do something, anything, better than Richie.
The counting rope is a metaphor for the passage of time and for a boy's emerging confidence facing his greatest challenges: blindness and the approaching death of his beloved grandfather.