George and Cocoa are star-crossed lovers. Cocoa's real name is Ophelia, and she comes from a southern town called Willow Springs, but as part of her attempt to get away from that strange town, she interviews George to try and get a good job in New York. George, on the other hand, is an orphan. She doesn't get the job, because she has to return to Willow Springs which interferes with the start date. George first experiences the strangeness of Willow Springs when Cocoa sends a letter, asking for the job again. The letter, unbeknownst to George, bears a spell that binds the fates of the two together.
They fall in love, but they never visit Cocoa's hometown until one day, more than four years after the two got together, they do visit Mama Day and the strange town of Willow Springs. Cocoa coaxes George to return with her to Willow Springs, but George is an isolated person without a family, and what's more, he's an engineer. So when he learns from Cocoa's Mama Day that she has been hexed by the malicious Ruby, he cannot fathom the involvement of magic.
But then one day, Cocoa's illness becomes obvious, and a hurricane destroys the bridge between the rest of the world and the town. George is stranded with a dying wife in a magical town he does not believe in. Mama Day gives very particular instructions on how George must save his wife from her evil curse, and he plays along, but his scientific mind betrays him. At the end of Mama Day's instruction, he turns to use science to heal his wife, against Mama Day's will, and his wife dies.
