When Matthew Quentin finds an old book in their attic, he doesn’t know he’s about to turn his world upside down. After his classmates and adopted senior sister make fun of him, he angrily writes down every offender’s name in the book, intent on using it as a black book like his British head teacher, who uses one in school to list the names of pupils to be punished. However, something very strange begins to happen in the quiet little suburb of Sleepy Lake after Matthew writes his list. Neighborhood kids start disappearing . . . one by one.

The book Matthew found is an extraordinarily mysterious one fashioned by an unearthly being in 315 A.D. Many have killed and died for it before several unfortunate events landed it in their attic. So, when Matthew eventually writes down his name and his adopted younger sister’s as the book’s owners, they wake up in a tunnel, cold and confused. Matthew realizes they are in France during World War II and what he has done now dawns on him. How on Earth is he going to fix the problem he had unleashed on almost everyone he knows?

The boy and his adopted siblings must swing across space and time with the mysterious book’s help through many historical events, adapting to the various cultures they encounter and dodging unsavory entities eager to seize the book along the way. And when they finally meet a greedy former priest in Napoleon’s 19th century France, whose sole desire is to wield the book as a weapon, the stage is set for a hilariously dramatic showdown of world-shattering proportions! One that has profound implications for the world at large, and might as well save a secretive old man, whose chance rescue could change a small boy’s life forever!