Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.
It seems that no one pays attention to little Bee, even while she pretends to be a very fierce dragon, so she hops away from home, but soon finds herself wondering if a dragon ever gets lonely.
Convinced that his new foster parents do not really want him, eleven-year-old Cory decides to run away with his new friend, an old lady from the nearby nursing home.
Though very different, events in their lives have made eleven-year-old Fiona and her younger sister Wallace close, so when Wallace disappears, Fiona risks foregoing the dance audition she has worked so hard to get.
Magician Eric Banyon learns that he has a seventeen-year-old brother Magnus who has also run away from home and lives as a homeless person in Manhatten. Eric is determined to locate him. However he gets involved with the weird mythology created by other homeless kids who claim they are stalked by a demon, "Bloody Mary.".
Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with--and protection from--Venice's "Thief Lord.".
