In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others.

Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade ; the dangerous device Jasper stole from him for the life of the girl Jasper loves. One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens. From the rough streets of...

One morning in March 1888, twelve-year-old Milton Daub awoke to find the world buried in snow. The blizzard was like nothing Milton and his neighbors in the Bronx had ever seen. No one dared go out into the storm. No one, that is, except Milton. He and his father made a pair of snowshoes from barrel hoops and old roller skates. Then Milton stepped bravely into the storm to buy milk for his family. Soon he was buying supplies for everyone in the area....

When Izzy O'Donnell saved the students at Miss Posterity's Academy for Practical Magic her courage caused the Mayor of New York to allowed new "kindling schools" to open, and open them to any child who wanted to apply, even if they are poor, and that his how Maeve O'Donnell ended up with her older sister at the Manhattan School for Magic; but unlike Izzy, Maeve is terrified of magic because she feels its wildness, and fears that she will never be...

A young woman in nineteenth-century New York City must struggle against gender and class boundaries when her father is found dead of a supposed suicide, and she believes there is more than meets the eye, so in order to uncover the truth she will have to decide how much she is willing to risk and lose.