To rescue her missing mother, thirteen-year-old Mira must travel to sixteenth-century Rome, where she befriends the painter Caravaggio and other artists and scientists under suspicion for being forward thinking individuals.

When Mira receives a cryptic postcard from her missing mother, she sets off with her father and brother to find her in Paris. Only Mira doesn't know she's looking in the wrong century. With an innocent touch to a gargoyle sculpture on the roof of Notre Dame, Mira is whisked into the past. There she learns her mother isn't just avoiding the family, she's in serious trouble. Following her mother's clues, Mira travels through time to help change history...