The Peculiars is the story of Lena Mattacascar, a teenager who doesn't understand why her hands and feet are so gangly and long and why she isn't like other girls and especially why her grandmother calls her a goblin. Lena's father, who she has not seen since she was a little girl, has disappeared to the far north in a wilderness called Scree. There it is said that Peculiars live, people unacceptable to modern society as well as those who are "strange" Or have "unnatural talents." On her eighteenth birthday Lena decides to go to Scree and search for her gather. on the train journey there she meets a young librarian named Jimson Quiggley who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the private home and library of a Mr Beasely. En route, the train is stopped by wanted men who are being chased by the handsome young marshal!, Tomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lean's gather is he is most interested and follows her to the northern city where the two spy on Quiggly and Mr. Beasly. Thus begins a love triangle between Lena, Quiggly and Saltre as well as the strange tale of Mr. Beesly, his home called Zephyr House and the strange folks who go there but who never come out again.