Ghosts are ransacking homes in Salisbury, England, stealing newspapers and scaring children. The Continentals (minus Doc Caliban, and of course Heinrich) find a laughing criminal Fade called Ghost Captain haunting Stonehenge, plus a blond Traveler with a quick knife hand.
There is an active portal in Stonehenge which leads to the fair world. Claire is able to Travel through it, and discovers that Heinrich did not, in fact, disappear completely, but Faded into the fair world. She can with effort move people back and forth from the two Stonehenges, but before she can reunite Monk with his favorite dragon Georgie, Ghost Captain starts shooting at her.
Ghost Captain punches Dex through his helmet, or rather through his helmet, without touching the iron. Dex counters with blinding smoke and an arc-light, which seems to drive the attackers away.
In Salisbury itself, gray-rubber-suited ectomorphs attack with long silver pistols. They do not speak, but one of them, braver than the others, makes hand signs which Francis does not understand. They Travel away, return with a net, and try to snare Francis, but he Movers them aside. He can't nail them before they Travel, though.
Other invaders are watching from high places. George catches one on a church steeple and electroshocks him before he can Travel. Another fellow tries to imitate Francis, but George isn't fooled, and punches his lights out with a pair of iron knuckles.
Francis pursues. The guy's gone, but a policeman said he saw someone run off over a garden fence. Francis goes over the fence, sees no sign of anyone, decides he's been tricked, and returns, but of course the alleged policeman is gone.
Meanwhile, at the town library, a bunch of small mechanical men are gathering books for a massive dwarf taking notes at a table. He startles when Melody speaks, then runs away, diving through a window head-first and taking a shot at it with a sawed-off shotgun on the way out. He is too much in a hurry to take his documents with him.
The dwarf hastens to Stonehenge and disappears in a flash of lightning. The portal has been closed from the other side; Claire can no longer access the fair world.
The notes the dwarf took track events in the fair world with similar events in the grim world. For example, the rebellion called the Ingratitude occurred 140 years ago on their side, whereas the rebellion called the American Revolution was 170 years ago on our side. The Burian Concord was 30 fair world years ago, versus 60 years since German Unification. The fair world seems to experience major historical events about 30 years later than we do. Which means they're coming up on time for their Great War, a fact which the dwarf recorded in his notes.
They also stole several copies of the Domesday Booke, the original census of England from the 9th century. What they want with that is a mystery.
While the fairies' goal -- research grimworld history for clues to their own future -- doesn't really seem all that evil, especially by the standards of the Grimnoir, their instant readiness to kill anyone who finds them suggests that they can't be allowed to keep popping in.
Also, two townsfolk abducted by the fairies are rescued. They say the man who took them was all made of wires and gears, attended by many smaller mechanical men.
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