Four linked stories of discovery and survival begin with a Paleolithic-era girl who makes the first written signs, continue with Anna, who people call a witch, then a mad twentieth-century poet who watches the ocean knowing the horrors it hides, and concluding with an astronaut on the first spaceship from Earth sent to colonize another world.

"What if young Arthur Conan Doyle really went to a secret school for extraordinarily gifted children called Baskerville Hall? When a mysterious man with a pipe notices young Arthur's incredible deductive skills, Arthur's offered a spot at the esteemed Baskerville Hall and a chance to lift his family out of poverty. There Arthur makes quick friends with Irene Eagle, a girl who boldly strides into any adventure, and Jimmie Moriarty, a boy whose brilliance...

Jack and Annie travel back in time to Egypt and meet Florence Nightingale, who is on the trip that will influence her life and the decisions that will make her famous.

Barry der Menschenretter, a Saint Bernard dog, reflects back on his life in the early 1800s at the Hospice of the Great Saint Bernard in the Swiss Alps, where he rescued some forty people from avalanches. Includes facts about the breed and the hospice.