In the dawning age of flight, when the sky belonged to dreamers and daredevils, a clever village boy named Tom Dorrell catches the eye of a wealthy manufacturer and changes his life forever. When John Greatorex's motor-car breaks down on a country road, Tom fixes it with quick wits and quicker fingers, earning not just the man's gratitude but something rarer: belief in his impossible dreams. Greatorex becomes patron and surrogate father to the aspiring inventor, funding his attempts to build a machine that can climb above the clouds. But the call of adventure proves stronger than the workshop. A political crisis erupts in Morocco, a British diplomat falls into peril, and Tom must pilot his creation across dangerous skies to attempt a rescue that could change the course of international relations. The novel pulses with the raw excitement of an era when flight itself seemed like magic, when human beings were first learning to stretch the boundaries of the possible.
