Ted Spark, the story’s 12-year-old narrator, describes how much he loves riding the London Eye, a Ferris wheel in Central London. As Ted reminisces, his narration explains a bit about the novel’s upcoming mystery, and he recalls how it all started: He and his older sister, Kat, took their cousin Salim to the London Eye. A stranger offered them a free ticket, and they gave it to Salim. After Salim hopped aboard the ride, they saw him waving from the capsule as it slowly ascended around the giant wheel. When the capsule completed one revolution and returned, the other passengers walked out, but Salim didn’t appear.

Ted ends his explanation of events with a remark that “having a funny brain that runs on a different operating system from other people’s helped me to figure out what had happened” (4).

The narrative shifts back in time, before Salim’s disappearance: The mystery begins when Ted and Kat’s aunt Gloria announces a visit. Ted’s father, Ben, calls her “Hurricane Gloria” because she “leaves a trail of devastation in her wake” (5).