To increase her sense of wonder Grace is chosen by Natures spirit guides and guardians to travel on a funny sometimes fearful journey. Her unlikely allies are small, often overlooked plants, flowers and insects. She seems to be about to discover what lies in and beyond the rainbow, but her decision to help a lost, bitter boy Downcast Don to rediscover wonder diverts her through colourful and disturbing forests, down a well to find an underground forge, and into a meeting with an ancient desert giantess. Her chief guide, Heartsease, assures her this is all part of a search for rainbow wisdom, to see how all things and people matter.

Allowed then to climb the Shining Stairway, Grace is nearer the rainbow but in more danger of being sidetracked by strange, even dangerous forces. The promised places are beautiful and intriguing but she learns to look back below the surface of her adventures and to make important choices. Suddenly back in the everyday world she is still herself but more so because she can see and understand more acutely.