1914, rural West Kentucky. Twelve-year-old Emma Mae, ten-year-old Edward, and their seven-year-old brother Fred dash from their one-room school at Sunny Slope during a thunderstorm. Suddenly, as they run past the graveyard near their home, there is a close lightning flash. In an instant, they find that they have traveled back through time and are now on board a large clipper ship filled with passengers who are en route from Germany to America. What adventures and perils await them on board this ship? What will they have to do to be miraculously returned to their own home and family? And what will become of them if they don't find the way back home?