Even if there are no spirits in the real world, which I believe, there was enough goodness in Bill to finally realize the great beauty and importance of innocence so that he might have been able to return Hiti to his home to take care of her himself before it was too late. A scenario like that is perfectly plausible without the help of spirits, though spirits can speed things up a bit in a fictional story. My 5-star review should not be interpreted as giving any praise for such plot devices (in general, the supernatural). But the altogether pleasant characters in the story were very satisfying.