When Mira’s moth­er, who left the fam­i­ly with­out expla­na­tion many weeks ear­li­er, sends a mys­te­ri­ous post­card from Paris, Mira, her father and her broth­er trav­el to France to find her. Mira soon dis­cov­ers that she and her moth­er have the unusu­al abil­i­ty to be trans­port­ed in time, and her moth­er needs help to change the events sur­round­ing the Drey­fus Affair and be able to come home.

Dur­ing Mira’s adven­tures in 19th cen­tu­ry Paris, she meets artists and musi­cians and learns about con­tem­po­rary atti­tudes toward Jews. The many details about art move­ments, pol­i­tics, and the French judi­cial sys­tem threat­en to over­whelm the nov­el, but Moss’ excit­ing plot and Mira’s brav­ery and willing­ness to do what­ev­er is nec­es­sary to bring her moth­er home keep the read­er engaged.

An exten­sive author’s note gives more infor­ma­tion about the events described in the nov­el, and a bib­li­og­ra­phy pro­vides sug­ges­tions for fur­ther read­ing. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 10 – 14.