On a dark night, Meg Murry sits in her attic bedroom, freaking out – partly because there's a storm, but more because she feels all wrong. Her teachers think her stupid, her friends think she's a baby, and she beat up a boy for talking smack about her younger brother. It doesn't help that her father has disappeared. Meg hates herself for being unable to hold in her feelings and act normal like everyone else. She goes downstairs to make some cocoa, and finds her younger brother Charles Wallace is expecting her, and already has some cocoa going. Charles Wallace is the sibling Meg feels closest to – not only does it seem like he can read her mind sometimes, but he's also an oddball like her. Everyone thinks he's slow, but really he's smarter than most people.