Rome in the year 1635 finds Frank Stone and his pregnant wife Giovanna in the clutches of Cardinal Borgia, whose political machinations and papal assassins may soon elevate him to Pope Borgia. Now Frank, along with Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew, must protect Pope Urban VII from all manner of treachery.

The people at a maximum security prison in southern Illinois suddenly find themselves thrown back in time along with people from other periods in time. Dinosaurs, conquistadores, and prisoners were just some of the things the prison staff had to deal with in an effort to survive.

As the Thirty Years War continues to devastate seventeenth-century Europe, the power of the United States of Europe, under the leadership of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the modern-day West Virginians mysteriously swept into the past, flourishes, but a French spy and a vengeful assassin targeting Grantville's Mike Stearns and his wife could destroy everything.

"Eddie Cantrell is married to the king of Denmark's daughter and is sent by Admiral Simpson to the Carribbean to secure access to the most valuable commodity on that continent--the oil which the up-time machines and industry need. Making his way to the New World, Eddie must face often hostile natives, rambunctious Dutch ship captains, allied colonies on the brink of starvation and the hostile Spanish presence"--

"Most of the Church's senior leaders have converged upon the city of Besancon in Burgundy, where Pope Urban's renegade papacy, now on the run from the Vatican's would-be usurper Borja, plans to offer an ecumenical olive branch to the other Christian denominations with which Rome has been at war. Fortunately, Urban has up-time help relying on Cardinal Protector Larry Mazzare's theological savvy, Sharon Nichol's medical skills, and a small contingent...

"1636. The United States of Europe, the new nation formed by an alliance between the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus and the West Virginians hurled back in time, is on the verge of civil war. His brain injured, Gustavus is no longer in command. Swedish chancellor Oxenstierna, a leader of aristocratic reaction against democracy, is gathering the forces of the hidebound ruling class to drown the revolution in a bloodbath. In Magdeburg, the capital of...