Behind her, a man, standing next to fire, calls the ferret (named Gwin) to him and talks to Meggie for a moment. He has tiny horns, and he tries to bite her when she offers him a piece of her sandwich. Outside, a ferret shows up at Meggie's feet. He opens it up, and begins to skim through the book's pages. He hears a specific voice, one he obviously recognizes, and he finds and pulls a copy of 'Inkheart' from the shelves. As he wanders, he hears whispered lines coming from the book.

The owner invites him to look around at all the old books that he has, and Mo wanders off to the back. Mo introduces himself to the shop owner, who recognizes him as 'that famous book doctor!' He brings out one old book for Mo to fix, which he says he can. Mo heads into an old shop while Meggie waits outside in the street looking at other books. Apparently, he always scours every corner of old bookshops looking for a very specific old book that he has never been able to find. Meggie says that maybe he will find the old book he is always looking for. Twelve years later, Mo and his daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennet), are on their way to another old bookshop (as always, because Meggie expresses the wish to go to modern bookshops where they can have hot coco, etc.) in Germany. As he is reading aloud, things shake and move slightly (only noticed by Mo), and a red riding hood falls into the back yard onto their clothesline. They try to calm their baby girl down for bed, so Mo picks a book to read: Little Red Riding Hood. Mortimer Folchart (Brendan Fraser) is one of these 'Silvertongues.' In an opening shot, we see Mortimer (or 'Mo' as he's called by some) sitting with his wife, Resa (Sienna Guillory). Often, they don't know they possess the gift. A voiceover tells us that storytellers have always existed, but there are the rare few who are 'Silvertongues' who can bring characters to life.

Inkheart novel