When David enlists Joe's aid in babysitting, Wishbone escapes from his noisy home and imagines himself as Charles Darnay, a young Frenchman who, despite great danger, returns to France during the Revolution to help a friend.
Thirteen-year-old Rowan and his eleven-year-old sister Nina, still bereft by the death of their mother the year before, experience an unusual adventure through time when they come to stay with their two eccentric great-aunts in a small town on the Maine coast.