From the publisher:
Clifton, Indiana, 1840. Jessie Keyser lives with her family in a small log cabin. Her father is a blacksmith and her mother cares for her and her siblings--though, at night, Jessie's mother also secretly tends anyone who gets sick in their village.
Lately, more and more people have been falling ill. Especially the other kids in Jessie's one-room schoolhouse. Quarantine signs appear on the local homes. And Jessie's mother looks worried. Very worried. One night, she tells Jessie that it's a diphtheria outbreak--a dangerous disease. And if they don't act soon, some of those sick children could die. Then Jessie's mother tells her that only Jessie can help--by leaving Clifton.
But Jessie's mother also reveals a shocking truth about the outside world, and what, where, and when Clifton is. Jessie will have to escape and survive a totally strange world, because she and her friends are all running out of time.