A timeless city. An endangered world. Only Love can save them. A misfit band of humans and demigods-and one cheery automaton-carry the fate of the world in this dazzling conclusion to Ali Ives's Epitome of Science trilogy. All the clocks have stopped in Frettchen. Skies haunted by a terrifying spectral shadow, the once thriving city-state and its people are trapped inside a timeless bubble. No one can get in or out, much to the consternation of Mikalai Gloucester and his friends, Zane and Finch, who were spared Frettchen's dark fate only thanks to a last-minute Transportation spell that flung them far south. One night, a cryptic dream visitor tells Gloucester he must "go home." The trio heads north, hoping to find answers. Traversing cities and seas of unrest, they reunite with former allies and make colorful new friends as they search for a way back into Frettchen. Yet entering the frozen city soon becomes only one of the impossible tasks on their docket, for as they grow closer to Frettchen's borders, they realize that its timelessness is spreading. Gloucester and his friends must find a way to heal the shattered mind of a demigod before the whole world is swallowed into non-existence.