'Thou great Norman lump!' muttered Catweazle the magician. 'If I conjure till Doomsday, I cannot make thee gold,' and there was a sympathetic croak from his familiar, Touchwood. Even the world of Electrickery had been better than this, thought Catweazle bitterly.

They were captives, imprisoned in the deepest dungeon of Farthing Castle at the behest of the great Norman lord, William de Collynforde, and likely to remain so unless Catweazle's magic worked for once, and he managed to fly from the accursed castle.

Fly he did, but once again it was through time, not space. Hurling himself, full of faith, from the battlements, Catweazle landed splosh in the moat — but the castle had vanished! In its place was a large white house with a clock tower with a little turret on top. Cedric Collingford, the boy who lived in the house, was to be his ally in a new series of magical and hilarious adventures, in which Catweazle seeks the 'Thirteenth Sign' of the Zodiac which he believes will help him fly back to his own time, and Cedric hopes to restore his family fortune by finding the lost Collingford treasure.

Catweazle's presence produces just as many hilarious situations as it did in the first book, Catweazle.