One Autumn day in 1985, sixteen-year-old Mary Veal vanishes from her Massachusetts prep school. A few weeks later she reappears unharmed and with little memory of what happened to her--or at least little that she is willing to share. nbsp;Was Mary abducted, or did she fake her disappearance?nbsp;This question haunts Mary's family, her psychologist, even Mary herself.nbsp;Weaving together three narratives, The Uses of Enchantment conjures a spell in which the hallucinatory power of a young woman's sexuality, and her desire to wield it, has devastating consequences for all involved.