As a girl, Sophie would had said she knew exactly what a house ought to be: made up of four sturdy walls, respectably decorated, and most important of all, having the common decency to stay in one place. Wizard Howl's castle darting about in the hills above Market Chipping is nothing but a disgrace, even before she sees the squalor in which it's kept with her own eyes; Sophie reminds herself sternly that, curse or no curse, she ought not to long for such a vagabond existence.

A house may be one thing, though, but a home is quite another, and Sophie's heart is quite certain which it wants.