Strangers don't come to Storybrooke. The town's residents are victims of a curse--trapped by an Evil Queen in a world without magic, they don't remember that they were once Snow White, Prince Charming, Jiminy Cricket, and other characters from a fairytale world. The curse keeps them in Storybrooke, and keeps everyone else out...until a dark stranger with a typewriter arrives on a motorcycle.

August, the mysterious newcomer, claims to be in Storybrooke because, as a writer, the town inspires him. As the other characters discover, though, he knows more about fairytales than he lets on. With one foot in the nonmagical world, one foot in fairytale land, and both hands on a typewriter, August is the perfect narrator to tell fans the story of ONCE UPON A TIME's first season and ready them for a surprise in the next.