So Gramp's time machine actually works! Fourteen-year-old Susan Ferguson is startled when she's catapulted into the wild streets of 1872 Manhattan-where danger and adventure await at every turn. The errand she volunteered for is scary enough-to bring home a brain that holds the key to her grandfather's survival-but her mission quickly spirals into chaos when she has to navigate a perilous landscape filled with street gangs, narrow escapes, and diseases from a bygone age. Susan has always been an instinctive liar, but now she's playing in the big leagues. She's mistaken for a boy but goes along with it for safety. To conceal her spooky time travel she tells people she's a visitor from Australia. As an Australian boy she becomes an assistant to the surgeon who removed the brain, but she must escape bullies and dodge a suspicious detective while tumbling into a historic blackmail case. Her only ally is a street-smart newsboy who sometimes helps her with a mixture of bravado, misinformation, and genuine skills. Could they become a team?