'You have to choose whether you will learn the discipline to control it. Or whether you will use it to curse. Either way you have power.'

When Matt turns seventeen, he is shocked by how drawn he is to an old leather-bound book — especially since he is dyslexic and has never liked to read. But the book turns out to be far more powerful than Matt could have imagined. It is his talisman, an object that allows him to stravagate through time and place to a country called Talia. There, Matt arrives at Padavia University, where he meets other Stravaganti — including Luciano, who is in great danger after killing the head of the powerful di Chimici family in a duel. Together, Matt, Luciano and Arianna, a duchessa in disguise as a boy, must fight the di Chimici family before they make a terrifying breakthrough into our modern world....