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.
