Dorothy gets swept into the water by a storm while traveling by boat to
Australia with her uncle Henry. She finds safety in a floating chicken
coop that washes up on the coast with a hen inside. She meets a talking
hen and Tik-Tok the clockwork man, one of the earliest sentient humanoid
automatons in fiction. The three go to Princess Langwidere's palace,
which is home to a variety of interchangeable, removable heads. She
locks Dorothy in a high tower after she refuses to allow her to remove
her head and add it to her collection. On a journey to rescue the royal
family from the Nome King, Princess Ozma and her Royal Court of Oz just
so happen to pass the Deadly Desert. Tik-Tok, Billina, and Dorothy
accompany Ozma on her journey to the Kingdom of the Nomes. Billina hears
the Nome King talking to another Nome about his transformations, and she
discovers how to identify which ornaments are converted individuals by
their color. She also finds that the Magic Belt the King is wearing
gives him his magical abilities. The Oz people are able to seize the
magic belt and flee by taking advantage of the Nomes' aversion to eggs.
Ozma, Dorothy, and the others return to Oz after restoring the throne of
the royal line of Ev.