When college freshman Grey Murphy buys a computer program guaranteed to improve his life, it introduces him to Ivy, the lovely girl across the hall...whose only fault is her insistence that she comes from a magical land called Xanth. But before long -- through the interference of the computer program, which is actually an extension of the evil machine Com Pewter -- Grey finds out his attractive neighbor is telling the truth.

Ivy is determined to return home to continue the search for the long-missing Good Magician Humfrey, and Grey agrees to help her. However, justifiably disoriented in a place he can scarcely believe in, enamored of a sorcerous Princess yet unwilling to believe magic is real, Grey could very well become Com Pewter's tool in its bid to attain absolute power.