Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, and his actress mother Lily Cavanaugh have moved from California to Arcadia Beach, New Hampshire, to escape the machinations of his dead father's old business partner, Morgan Sloat. Lily is dying of lung cancer, but refuses to accept treatment, or to communicate with Morgan, whom she has never trusted. Left to his own devices, Jack meets a mysterious maintenance man named Speedy Parker, who tells him about a place called the Territories, and a magical item called the Talisman that can save his mother. This item is hidden in a counterpart of the Alhambra Hotel in which Jack and his mother are staying, situated in a remote part of the Territories. We learn that the world Speedy calls "the Territories" exists parallel to our own. Some individuals in the Territories have "twinners", or counterparts, in our world. Twinners' births, deaths, and other major life events usually also exist in parallel. Twinners can "flip" or migrate to the other world, but do so by occupying the body of their counterpart. In rare instances (such as Jack's), a person may die in one world but not the other. When this happens, the survivor "single-natured", with the ability to switch back and forth freely between the two worlds. Jack is taught how to flip by Speedy Parker, who he learns is the twinner of a
gunslinger named Parkus in the Territories. The beloved Queen Laura of the Territories is the twinner of Jack's mother (who is known as the "Queen of the
B Movies"), and, like Jack's mother, Queen Laura is dying. Speedy tells Jack that the Talisman is capable of healing both Lily and her Twinner. Jack sets off to seek the mystical Talisman in the parallel world, with help and encouragement from Speedy Parker. Arriving in the Territories, he encounters the sadistic Osmond, a henchman of Morgan of Orris, who is an enemy of Queen Laura. Morgan of Orris is the Territories counterpart of Morgan Sloat, the business partner who may have caused the death of Jack's father. Both versions of Morgan are hunting for Jack, and are aware of his nature. Jack narrowly escapes being caught by Morgan of Orris and takes refuge in woods by the side of the road. But the forest is dangerous: sentient trees attack Jack, forcing him to flip back into this world. Hoping travel will be safer in his world, Jack continues his journey through the U.S. and gets a job working as a barback in Oatley, New York. The owner, Smokey Updike, is ruthless and abusive towards Jack and keeps him a virtual prisoner. Jack escapes Oatley, but is chased by a goat-like creature named Elroy that has been stalking him throughout his stay. He evades Elroy long enough to return to the Territories, where Jack remembers another associate of his father named Jerry Bledsoe, who died in a freak explosion. Jack understands that flipping between the two worlds may have serious, even fatal consequences. When Jack returns to his world after running into Elroy and Morgan again, he becomes convinced that he has inadvertently caused a similar incident, and loses courage. In Ohio, Jack meets a blind singer, who may or may not be Speedy in disguise, who motivates Jack to continue his journey. Once back on the road, Jack runs into Morgan at a rest stop, flips into the Territories, and meets a werewolf creature, named Wolf. Wolf is a friendly young male, whose family are the dedicated herders and guardians of the Queen's livestock, animals which resemble cow/sheep hybrids. Wolf was acquainted with Jack's father and Morgan/Orris, was aware of their good and evil natures, and identifies Jack because his scent is like his father's. The two become friends, but Morgan arrives through a portal and attacks them with a device that emits lightning bolts. The cattle panic and Wolf nearly drowns while trying to get them out of the river. Jack saves him and escapes by flipping back into his world, taking Wolf with him. The two travel towards Indiana, though Wolf struggles to adjust to Jack's world. Jack and Wolf are arrested for vagrancy by a police officer and are taken to the Sunlight Home, a school for delinquent boys. The school's owner, evangelist Robert Gardner, is the twinner of Morgan's henchman Osmond, who is on the hunt for Jack. The boys are bullied by the school prefects, Sonny Singer and Heck Bast. The Sunlight House has a brutal regime, kept hidden from the outside world: inmates are often subjected to brutal punishments. After a number of incidents, Jack and Wolf are able to escape into the Territories. They learn that the Territories counterpart of the school is itself a prison camp, worse even than the Sunlight Home; the duo flip back almost immediately. The prefects fight Jack and Wolf in the bathroom, and Gardner, who is suspicious of Jack's identity, drugs Wolf and tortures Jack in an attempt to make him reveal himself. Wolf, who has been placed in a solitary confinement box, transforms into a werewolf, and wreaks havoc on the school, massacring numerous students and breaking into Gardner's office. Wolf kills the prefects in Gardner's office, but is shot by Sonny. Jack comforts the dying Wolf before moving on to enlist the help of Morgan Sloat's son Richard, who is at boarding school in Illinois. Jack attempts to tell Richard about his adventures and Morgan's plan, but Richard refuses to believe him. But Jack's presence has unleashed a series of uncanny events. The school transforms into a grotesque Territories version of itself; the students turn into mutants and attempt to goad Richard into giving up Jack. Finally, the two boys escape and flip into the Territories. In the Territories, the duo meet a man named Anders who is sending a shipment of weapons to Morgan's soldiers for a final stand against Jack. Richard, still refusing to accept Jack's tale or the reality of his surroundings, is convinced that he is hallucinating. Jack decides to take the shipment himself and plan an ambush. The boys travel via a battery-operated train through the Blasted Lands, a hellish landscape full of fireballs, mutated creatures, and smugglers. Jack and Richard - who is becoming increasingly ill from the radiation - bombard the army base, destroying most of Morgan's armada and killing both Elroy and Osmond's son. Jack flips into California, where Richard finally admits to the Territories' existence. They arrive at Point Venuti, their final destination, and sneak into the Agincourt Hotel undetected by the remaining mutants. They meet Speedy Parker, who is weak and dying. Inside the Black Castle, Jack battles stone suits of armor defending the Talisman and takes it, triggering an earthquake and disbanding the rest of the mutants who allied with Morgan Sloat. Jack realizes there are multiple worlds beside the two he is familiar with, and the Talisman is the axis of all of them. He heals Richard with the Talisman, kills Gardner on the castle steps and faces off with Morgan on the beach. Eventually he manages to kill Sloat, heals Speedy and returns to New Hampshire in a
Cadillac Eldorado. Jack reunites with Lily and uses the Talisman a final time to save his mother and the Queen. == Publication history ==