Mageia is the home town of all the world's conjurers, stage
magicians and sleight of hand artists. Even its children are
skilled with cards, handkerchiefs and the other paraphernalia of magic. Then a young man, Adam, and his talking dog, Mopsy, arrive at the gates and ask politely for admission. Adam freely admits that where he comes from, he is considered a very minor magician, capable only of the simple, ordinary magic. When he is allowed in to apply for membership in the Guild of
Magicians, he demonstrates his magic for the panel of judges by unscrambling an egg and putting it back in its shell. Although unnerved by this, they are nonetheless forced to allow him to progress to the finals. The leader of the Guild coerces his daughter jane into trying to coax the secret of Adam's magic out of him. But when she finally gets her chance, on a picnic just outside the walls of Mageia, Adam insists that he only does very ordinary magic, the sort that allows cows to turn grass into milk or an acorn to grow into an oak. Then he introduces her to the magic of imagination and shows her how it is a doorway to past, present and future. Meanwhile, a faction of the stage magicians is plotting to rid itself of Adam before he can put them out of business with his real magic. Their plot comes to a head in the finals when Adam puts on a spectacular display of his own magic. The chief of the plotters denounces him as a demon and the entire
audience storms the stage. Adam brings down a rain of gold coins as a distraction and by the time the audience has gathered up the coins, Adam and Mopsy have simply vanished, leaving only shock and awe behind them.