A very strange thing has happened at Strange Hill. Mitchell has actually completed an assignment, having made a beautiful wooden skateboard. However, when his project is smashed by Tyson, the story takes a turn for the truly bizarre.

It is exams week, and Mitchell is late as usual. When he sees the school's clocktower, something occurs to him. If he sets the clock back 10 minutes, nobody can claim he is late. Soon enough, Mitchell discovers that his experiment worked.

Things have been disappearing around Strange Hill High. As the new kid in school, suspicion falls on Mitchell. With his smart-mouthed attitude and defiance of authority, Mitchell unwittingly positions himself as the prime suspect.

Becky dreams of becoming the star of a big musical, but her singing is awful; when she falls asleep in class next to the radiator, she has an incredible dream in which she and her friends are pursued by a hideous musical beast called The Grackle.

After years of disgusting food, the school chef has finally won students over with his endless buffet of sweet treats. Everyone loves the situation except Becky, who sets up a stall to sell healthy snacks. The competition gets interesting.

When Mitchell is informed of a mysterious book that causes students who read it to disappear, with a grain of cynical amusement he heads straight for the library, thus beginning one of the greatest mysteries the school has ever seen.