With her family's finances in a downward spiral and taxes threatening, Margaret de Beauchamp is in London as her family's emissary to the Earl of Cork, the king's chancellor. While waiting for an audience, she decides to indulge her curiosity and visit the new "up-timers," ambassadors originally from somewhere called West Virginia, and reportedly "the future." They are imprisoned in the Tower of London, but are able to entertain visitors, becoming the latest curiosity of the fashionable set. An escape plan is in place, but vital parts are missing. Margaret might be able to make Harry Lefferts's wild scheme possible. Agreeing to assist the charming rogue, she finds herself ever more involved with the up-timers, visiting Magdeburg and bringing back technology that could save her family and the entire wool trade from the chancellor's greed. But all of England is in chaos with mercenaries everywhere and the crown stealing estates all over the North. By introducing aqualator computers to save the wool trade and weavers, the young gentlewoman and her new up-timer allies find themselves threatened by spies, raiders, and even pirates.