18-year-old Marnie (Sara Paxton) decides to forego her original college plans and attend Witch University in Halloweentown. Marnie is offered a full scholarship for her good deeds and for her work in the previous years. Much to her mother Gwen's (Judith Hoag) dismay, Marnie goes, and her brother Dylan (Joey Zimmerman) is reluctantly forced along by Gwen to keep an eye on her. The school is not what it seems, as witches and Magician (fantasy) cannot use magic (fantasy); instead they learn about Shakespeare and old magic history. Marnie had thought she would learn how to use her magic and is now crestfallen. She runs into her old friend Ethan (Lucas Grabeel) and makes a new friend named Aneesa the Jinn (Summer Bishil). She also makes three new enemies in the Sinister Sisters, a triad of malevolent, extremely snobby, spoiled, and manipulative witches with whom Dylan is immediately infatuated and are the daughters of Silas Sinister (Keone Young).