Ariana Trevelyan, Cambridge mathematics student and deft mechanical tinkerer, thinks keeping her parents in the dark about her position as a navigator on an amateur airship is the wisest course of action. She can't admit to them she throws darts in pubs on the weekends to raise money for her airship habit, for Heaven's sake! When a nasty German fellow tries to abduct her from a Cambridge library and her delightfully cryptic Great Aunt Miranda discovers her airship secret... her life becomes even more complicated. As Ariana finds herself on the run from mechanically Enhanced ruffians and surrounded by people with magical powers, she discovers that there's far more to her dead-eye aim than she initially thought. Now an evil man wants Ariana in his power to wreak havoc on the world - can she escape his clutches without losing her life?