Christabel McManus is a strong-willed fourteen-year-old from Sydney’s upper classes. Since the death of her mother two years earlier, her father—the Government Inspector of Health for New South Wales—has thrown himself increasingly into his work, leaving Christabel feeling lonely and resentful. When Paddy Rafferty, a servant’s eight-year-old son, is kidnapped by his villainous father to be trained as a pickpocket, Christabel decides to rescue him—by dressing as a boy herself and heading into the squalid and crime-ridden streets of The Rocks. What begins as a game takes a terrifying turn, as Christabel discovers that the notoriously violent gangs are not the only thing to be feared; an outbreak of the deadly bubonic plague is imminent. And when Christabel, too, is kidnapped, the game becomes very dangerous indeed