The world is in trouble! Nobody knows what to do when the Time Tornadoes start. Some days are long, some are short. Time stops then jerks forward. People are getting caught in Time Traps - locked in the past, then pushed into the future. Far from the city, in the strange old house Tanglewreck, Silver lives with her bony, bad-tempered aunt, Mrs Rokabye, and hears strange stories about the Timekeeper - an alchemist's watch that could steady Time again, if anyone could find it. When the sinister Abel Darkwater arrives at Tanglewreck in search of the watch, Silver realises she must begin a journey through Time and Space in search of the Timekeeper, during which she meets a loyal friend, Gabriel, and together they face many dangers and excitements. Can Silver and Gabriel survive the tasks ahead, and reach the Sands of Time before anyone else? And it they do - will the Timekeeper still be there?