Hundreds of years later, Maria Merryweather is left an orphan after her father is murdered in London. At the reading of his will, she discovers that he gambled away the family's estate and most of her inheritance. The only thing left is a mysterious book titled The Ancient Chronicles of Moonacre Valley. Due to the loss of the house, Maria and her governess, Miss Heliotrope, must go live with Maria's estranged uncle, Sir Benjamin, in Moonacre Valley, where her father departed from years before her birth.mysteriously vanished.