Tom is on holiday from school during a long, hot summer sometime in the early 1970s. While on an errand for his mum he saves Charles Bradwell from drowning in the local quarry and finds that he has gone back in time to the mid-1660s to just after the end of the Civil War and the rule of Oliver Cromwell. When Tom's cousin Matilda turns up unexpectedly, Tom, Matilda, Charles and his brother James team up to explore Juke's Farmhouse. They make an exciting discovery that will have consequences long into the future! Tom makes an astonishing discovery at the end of the adventure that turns everything he thought he knew on its head.