Cora and Finnian, siblings competing in the Junior Gingerbread Competition, discover their edible ornaments are mysteriously rotating. They realize the rotation is not due to icing failure but a magnetic or resonant force affecting the silver baubles. While searching for magnetic weights, they find a small, brass gear near a blue ribbon, which Finnian recognizes as matching the etchings on the historical Key Stones mentioned in town lore. A brief, unsettling blue flash of light stops the ornaments’ rotation, connecting the issue to past town disruptions like the sugar silo incident. Realizing the gear is tied to the old town clock tower's resonance system, Cora and Finnian decide to abandon the competition to seek out Piper, the cartographer, who is currently mapping the town's physical and magnetic layout in the Community Hall Map Room, believing the gear is a key component to stabilizing the town's structural integrity.