Something is not right in Emily's new house in the historic London neighborhood of Hound Hill. It's not just the hollowed-out treads worn in the crooked wooden stairs or the hearth that survives from the seventeenth-century. It has more to do with the sudden appearance of a wild-eyed young man looking for a small kitten with a bent tail. And the discovery of a black rat in the chimney - the same kind of rat that was responsible for the dreaded bubonic plague that killed tens of thousands of Londoners in the 1665 epidemic. The stress of her parents' recent separation and the move to a new house and school are disorienting for Emily, and she begins to experience distressing symptoms: headache and fever, extreme thirst, and hallucinations. She finds herself traveling back in time with the mysterious young man, back to a very different city where tallow candles light the streets and a terrible cart makes the rounds every evening. Readers will be swept up in this riveting and suspenseful ta