Elaine "Ellie" Harrison and her family have moved to Annapolis, Maryland, while her parents are on sabbatical. Ellie's parents are professors of Medieval history; they plan to do research in Annapolis on their separate interest, The Lady of Shalott and a sword which resembles the Arthurian Excalibur. Ellie is a 16-year-old junior in high school who is not thrilled about moving, but is used to dealing with her parents' eccentricities. Like when they named her Elaine, after Alfred Lord Tennyson's ill fated character the Lady of Shalott. Elaine of Astolat, in the poem, killed herself when Sir Lancelot chose to love Queen Guinevere over her. Ellie sees the poetic Elaine as a weak woman and is not thrilled to be named after her.
