A girl having a clockwork center makes every second count. When Cent Farthing nearly passed away, the brilliant physician Calvin Warwick managed to implant a brass “Ticker,” transforming her into “the to begin the Augmented!” But soon it was discovered that Warwick kidnapped and killed dozens of people striving to master another Ticker for Cent. The last time of Warwick’s trial, the Farthing manufacturing plant can be bombed, Warwick disappears, and Penny and her sibling, Nic, get a ransom demand for all their about Ticker Augmentation notes if indeed they need to find their parents again. Who is trying to avoid their work? Or to control it? Or is the purpose more sinister ?Established to resolve the mystery and reunite their family, the Farthings recruit their closest friends: fiery baker Violet Nesselrode and gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling. Unexpectedly leading the charge is Marcus Kingsley, the young army general who has his own reasons for attempting to lift the veil between this globe and another. Wagers are placed, friends are dropped, romance phases an ambush, and time is running out for the lady with the clockwork center.