Harry's aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, were so mean and hideous that summer that all he wanted to do was get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike. Harry does return to school where fresh torments and horrors arise.  

The reader is introduced to a stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and commiserates with Harry who tries to dodge the unwanted attentions of his best friend, Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny. 

But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins and someone or something begins turning Hogwarts' students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects, Harry Potter himself?