“A Wrinkle in Time” is a sci-fi novel that narrates the story of Mr. Murry, a scientist who is held captive by the Dark Thing and how Mrs. Ws’ wit and direction helped his kids Meg, Charles and their friend Calvin to save him. It all starts with Mr. Murry disappearing for a year. One night, one of the Mrs. Ws named Mrs. Whatsit approaches the family. She is a celestial creature who explains to the family the tesseract, a device that creates a wrinkle in time. She further explains how the universe is threatened by evil forces called the Dark Thing. Soon, they are taken to Camazotz where Charles fights the villainous IT, a floating brain but is soon controlled by it. Meanwhile, Mr. Murry who was held captive by IT teleports himself with the kids to another planet using another tesseract. They end up in Ixchel, a planet with furry but cordial beings. Soon, Meg travels back to Camazotz to free her brother’s mind from IT. With sheer love, she retrieves his mind and reaches back home with Mr. Murry.
The story begins on a night when Meg starts recollecting about how messed up her life has been the last few days. She starts thinking about how unfitting she is at school, how her father has been missing for a long time. She notices their family dog Fortinbras barking and grows suspicious of a blanket-stealing tramp lurking in the neighborhood. She comes down and sees her brother Charles in the kitchen. Her mother joins in and Charles talks about Mrs. Whatsit and him discussing Meg. Suddenly Mrs. Whatsit drenched in wet clothes comes knocking and as she finds shelter she starts talking about something called a tesseract.
Meg wonders about what has happened the previous night. Her mother reassures her that it wasn’t a dream. Next, she is seen misbehaving with her teacher. Her school principal talks about her father and she gets enraged. After school, Meg and Charles plan on visiting the three Mrs. Ws in a haunted house. On the way, they meet Calvin O’ Keefe who is equally interested in checking the house. Charles is satisfied with Calvin’s curiosity. Thus, he invites Calvin to dinner at their place. As they enter, they see Mrs. Who sewing the stolen blankets. She tells the kids to rest and sleep to prepare since the “time” is drawing near.
The next chapter starts with Meg, Charles and Calvin returning home where Mr. Murry is seen cooking stew in her Bunsen Burner. Calvin tells her how lucky she is to have such a caring family unlike his, where he goes mostly unnoticed. Just before sitting for dinner, Meg shows Calvin pictures of her dad with a group of scientists in Cape Canaveral. She then helps him with his homework in maths and physics which her father taught her. Calvin reads to Charles in bed while Meg and Mrs. Murry have a talk about understanding Mr. Murry’s disappearance. Next, Meg and Calvin have a romantic moment when Charles and the Mrs. Ws appear for preparation for the journey.The kids soon dissipate and materialize in their own bodies as they find each other on planet Uriel. Calvin asks what the medium is used when they had traveled. Mrs. Whatsit explains that they have tessered or wrinkled through space. Next Mrs. Whatsit explains to the children that their father is in grave danger. Soon, Mrs. Whatsit changes into a centaur and takes them for a ride around planet Uriel. They see the Dark Thing up above and Mrs. Which is asked by Meg whether this was the thing her father was fighting.
In the next episode, Mrs. Which explains to them that their father is trapped behind the dark cloud. They will tesseract through time to travel there. When Meg asks what tesseracting is, Charles explains that it is traveling through the fifth dimension. Soon, they feel their bodies dispersing. Meg feels suffocated. Mrs. Which apologizes; she had faultily tried to teleport them through the second dimension. Meg worries about their mother. Mrs. Which says that they’ll arrive home 5 minutes before they had left. They appear in a foggy planet around Orion. There they come to know that they are joining forces with a league against evil that had Jesus, Da Vinci and other famous people.
The Ms. Ws tesser them to Camazotz where their father is kept captive. They land on a hill and are told that they cannot be assisted anymore but they are gifted something each. They examine the same looking buildings with people doing the exact same thing in rhythmic harmony. They are told by a paperboy that they should not be out of their houses. The city is governed by IT from the CENTRAL Central Intelligence. Charles notices that the words said by the paperboy were as if not his own. Soon they prepare to confront the IT and search for the CENTRAL Central Intelligence building.
As soon as they enter the Central Intelligence building they see a door that they seek to open at any cost. The door opens on its own. They see icy walls with a marble-made hall and there sit men with similar formal dress. They tell the kids thing that they don’t understand. Soon they enter the room inside and see the man with Red Eyes. He tries to hypnotize them but they resist. They see the dark glow inside him like the one in Uriel. The man finds Charles interesting and tells him to understand and communicate with him. He invites the kids to dinner. The man hypnotizes Charles finally.
Charles tells them to enjoy the dinner and informs them that the man is good and Mrs. Ws are not. Meg yells at the man and tells him not to control Charles. The man tells her that Charles will guide them to their father. Soon, Charles takes them through a white long corridor. On the way, Charles tells them to turn in to his “Boss”, Meg tells Calvin to use his ability given by Mrs. Whatsit. He tries but fails. Soon, Charles opens up a door in the wall. Inside they see a kid being punished for deviance and his father trapped inside a cylindrical cell.
Meg tries to save her father by approaching the columns but Mr. Murry fails to hear her calls. Meg lashes out at Charles but he defends her attack. Calvin reads out The Tempest to cool Charles off. Soon, Meg remembers glasses given to her. She jumps and reaches her father, and they come out. But they are compelled to follow Charles and they approach a dome that contains a big living brain that pulsates strongly. Mr. Murry forbids them to give in. Soon, Calvin sees that Meg cannot but give in to the pulses of the brain. Thus, he tells everyone to tesser from the place.
Meg slowly regains consciousness but soon finds out that she is not able to reach them nor are her words. She hears them talking about how Mr. Murry ended up in Camazotz instead of tessering to Mars. He had almost given up hope when the kids saved him. Soon, Meg manages to make her voice audible to them. She asks where Charles is but comes to know that they had left him in Camazotz. She is enraged at them for this. Next thing they know, they see creatures with four arms advancing towards them. They have tentacles in place of hairs and have soft indentations in place of where humans would usually have eyes.
The beasts take Meg with them to treat her well. They try to communicate with Mr. Murry and Calvin and are surprised that they are not used to communicating with the beasts of other planets. One of them takes Meg on their furry chests and gives her food to eat. Meg creates a close bond with the beast and calls her Aunt Beast. The beats make her have a good sleep and sing her a lullaby that appeases her mind. She asks them whether she could communicate with Mr. Ws but realizes that she can’t. But soon, Mrs. Which’s thundering entrance is heard.
The three Mrs. Ws appear in front of them. They inform them that they cannot do anything to help retrieve Charles. Then Mr. Murry and Calvin volunteer to help retrieve him from IT, but the Misses disagree. They consider only Meg capable to go save Charles since she is the closest to him. Meg is scared and yet agrees to tesser with gifts from the ladies like enhanced love and innate love and a part of the of the New Testament. She tessers to IT’s dome and sees Charles still under IT’s influence. She calls him out of love and Charles snaps out of the influence. They reunite and reach home in Earth. The three ladies bid goodbye.
Author: Robert Burns