Sixteen-year-old Celestia is a wealthy member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, where she meets and falls in love with Peter, a hired hand who lives in the valley below, and by the time of the torrential rains that lead to the disastrous Johnstown flood of 1889, she has been disowned by her family and is staying with him in Johnstown. Includes an author's note and historical timeline.

Nine-year-old Omakayas and her family, members of the Ojibwa tribe, are forced to leave their island on Lake Superior in 1850 when white settlers move into the territory, and comes to realize that the things most important to her are her home and way of life.

In 1939 Sweden, two Jewish sisters wait for their parents to flee the Nazis in Austria, but while eight-year-old Nellie settles in quickly, twelve-year-old Stephie feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who is as cold and unforgiving as the island on which they live.

From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation.

Rebekah, a fifteen-year-old Jewish immigrant arriving in New York City in 1902, almost abandons her dream of getting an education when she is forced to work in a sweatshop.

In the Middle Ages, young squire Tristan of the Knights Templar, King's Archer Robard, and Muslim assassin Maryam work together to protect the Holy Grail as they travel across France toward England, a journey that takes them to the Cathar fortress of Montségur.

In 1806, star-crossed lovers Jacky Faber and Jaimy Fletcher are kidnapped by British Naval Intelligence and forced to embark on yet another daring mission--this time to search for sunken Spanish gold off the Florida coast.

As World War II draws to an end, Russian soldiers occupy Schwarz, Germany, bringing both friendships and hardship to the family of ten-year-old Fritz, whose grandfather was a Nazi sympathizer, and after they are forced to leave their farm, Fritz's mother and hired hand are arrested, leaving Fritz to fend for himself.

During a rainy Minneapolis Millers baseball game in 1903, Little Andy Oyler has the chance to become a hero by hitting the shortest and muddiest home run in history.

In 1905, while pursuing her dreams of becoming an artist, the twelve-year-old daughter of the Cape Light lighthouse keeper learns the value of family, home, and friendship.