In 1665 London, fourteen-year-old Christopher Rowe, apprentice to an apothecary, and his best friend, Tom, try to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult, following a trail of puzzles, codes, pranks, and danger toward an unearthly secret with the power to tear the world apart.

As the plague decimates London in 1665 and an assassin threatens the apothecary's life, apprentice Christopher Rowe and his faithful friend Tom, following a trail of puzzles, riddles, and secrets, risk their lives to untangle the heart of a dark conspiracy.

In 1666, after four months away, friends Christopher Rowe, Tom, and Sally return to London triumphantly but, guided by coded riddles, face a conspiracy that threatens Christopher, as well as the King himself.

In June 1665, excited at the prospect of coming to London to work at her sister Sarah's candy shop, teenaged Hannah is unconcerned about rumors of Plague until, as the hot summer advances and increasing numbers of people succumb to the disease, she and Sarah find themselves trapped in the city with no means of escape.

In 1666 Beth Johnson, actress and spy, has been assigned by spymaster Sir Alan Strange to pursue Henry Vale, mastermind behind the plots to kill King Charles, to the American colonies--but first she and Ralph must figure out a way to free their fellow spy John from prison so he can accompany them.

In London in the 1680s, Meg--now sixteen years old--tries to decide whether to marry either of the two men who court her, taking into account both love and her writing ambitions.

In the late seventeenth century, fifteen-year-old Kit, driven to desperation by the starvation of one brother and mistreatment of his own simple-minded twin, realizes his dream of becoming an apprentice in London but feels drawn by duty to return home to Essex.

Mall Percival tells how the plague came to her Derbyshire village of Eyam in the year 1665, how the villagers determined to isolate themselves to prevent further spread of the disease, and how three-fourths of them died before the end of the following year.

Thrown out of her home by her stepmother in 1670, fifteen-year-old Eliza Rose becomes a companion to Nell Gwyn, a mistress of Charles II, and learns a surprising truth about her parentage.

In England in 1662, a time of religious persecution, fifteen-year-old Susanna, a poor country girl and a Quaker, and seventeen-year-old William, a wealthy Anglican, meet and fall in love against all odds.