Birthday treat -- Peter misses an important telephone call -- Three-cornered hat -- Howl of a wolf -- Breakfast of grilled trout -- Lost in time -- Hospitality of the honorable Mrs. Byng -- Tar man's tale -- Journey begins -- Attack! -- Lord Luxon's tragedy -- Parliament of rocks -- Pandora's box -- Gideon's stratagem -- Pact made in blood -- Two Covent gardens -- Queen Charlotte's promise -- Into the net -- Race against time -- Newgate -- Straw men -- Tyburn -- To the reader.

Ignored by his father and sent to Derbyshire for the weekend, twelve-year-old Peter and his new friend, Kate, are accidentally transported back in time to 1763 England where they are befriended by a reformed cutpurse. Kate was unconscious for barely thirty seconds. When she came round, her face was drawn and her skin was white as paper. She felt sick and weak and all she wanted to do was close her eyes and escape from a reality that she was not ready to face -- at least not just yet. Gideon carried Kate to a shady spot well away from the road and laid her gently on the grass. He took a shirt from his bag and folded it into a pillow for Kate's head. Then he gave his water bottle to Peter, saying, "Stay with her. We are close to Baslow Hall, Colonel Byng's house; I shall fetch a horse and will return as soon as I am able." Peter took the bottle like a sleepwalker. His world had temporarily flicked out of focus, and he was quite happy for it to remain that way.