It is the summer of 1941, and fifteen-year-old Morgan Reilly has just moved to Newfoundland from New York to be with her father, an officer in the US Army stationed in St. John's. Morgan adores fairies and has a collection of Victorian children's books, so when she meets John O'Brien, nephew of her new landlords, she is intrigued by his story of being taken by the Good People when he was a child.

As the war escalates, Morgan and John are sent to the small community of Ferryland to stay with John's grandparents. It was there that John says the Good People kidnapped him, and soon after they arrive, he becomes withdrawn and strange. Morgan is more concerned with her own problems to worry too much about John--her father may soon be called into active duty if the US enters the war, and her brother has run away to England and joined the Royal Air Force.

Then Morgan has a fairy encounter of her own and it is up to John to find and rescue her. The Good People of Newfoundland are not the pretty winged beings of Victorian picture books, and Morgan is in real danger.

The Coming of the Fairies is a short YA/middle grade urban fantasy historical novel.