Teenaged Gabi Betarrini expects her summer to be just as boring as every other. It does not matter that she’s in gorgeous Italy; she goes every summer, and there’s nothing new to see- or so she thinks. Trapped on a boring dig with her little sister, Lia, and archaeologist mother, Gabi decides to go exploring. Against her mother’s commands, she and her sister climb into one of the tombs that had been uncovered.

The sisters discover hand prints that strangely resemble their own. Gabi lays her hand on one, and the sisters are taken back to ancient Italy in an instant. Throughout the series, they experience life in Medieval Italy. Gabi falls in love, while Lia struggles with a romance of her own. But should the sisters stay? And what about their parents? Can they leave their mom and their regular life in the present to stay in the past?

Another nagging problem remains in the time at which they transported. They went to Italy only a few years before the plague would strike. Without modern medicine, they could lose their lives and their newfound friends. What will the Betarrini sisters do? You’ll just have to read the River of Time series to find out!!