"The Runaway Skyscraper" concerns Arthur Chamberlain, an engineer who works in a midtown Manhattan office building called the Metropolitan Tower. When the sun suddenly begins moving backwards in the sky, setting rapidly in the east, he is the only one to realize what is actually happening: a flaw in the rock beneath the building has caused it to subside, but instead of moving in space, the building is falling backwards into the past. When the subsidence finally ends, the building is located several thousand years in the past, and its 2000-odd inhabitants find themselves stranded in pre-Columbian Manhattan. Chamberlain also realizes that the same seismic forces that caused the building to drop back into the past can also be used to return it to the present, but that doing so will require several weeks of intensive work by the building''s inhabitants, and in the meantime they must concentrate on feeding themselves. Chamberlain convinces the president of a bank on the first floor that he can return them to the present, and together they are able to organize the other inhabitants into hunting and fishing parties. Two weeks later, Chamberlain is ready to implement his plan. He forces a jet of soapy water into an artesian well beneath the building, and this allows the pressure that has built up in the rock to be released. The building travels forward in time again, returning to the exact moment when it began to travel into the past.

The Runaway Skyscraper

Chieko Sada is the daughter of Takichiro and Shige, who operate a kimono wholesale business in Kyoto. Now twenty, Chieko has known since she was in middle school that she was a foundling adopted by Takichiro and Shige. However, as told by Shige, they snatched Chieko when she was a baby "Under the cherry blossoms at night at Gion Shrine". The discrepancy on whether Chieko was a foundling or stolen is part of the plot and is revealed later in the story. Soon after a chance encounter at Yasaka Shrine, Chieko learns of a twin sister Naeko, who had remained in her home village in Kitayama working in the mountain forests north of the city. The identical looks of Chieko and Naeko confuse Hideo, a traditional weaver, who is a potential suitor of Chieko. The novel, one of the last that Kawabata completed before his death, examines themes common to much of his literature: the gulf between the sexes and the anxiety its recognition brings. The story is set in Kyoto, and incorporates various festivals celebrated there. One of these is the Gion festival which occurs in the book during July. As part of the Gion festival, there is a parade of floats constructed by various neighborhoods in Kyoto and one of Chieko fond memories is of Shin''ichi, who is interested in Chieko, participating as a festival boy. The Festival of the Ages is another important festival and this is where Hideo takes Chieko''s twin, Naeko, to view the parade.

The Old Capital

In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Helska, the New Republic believes that the Yuuzhan Vong threat is vanished. But the Skywalkers, Solos and their friends and allies find that this is not so; the Vong have yet to bring a dent of their forces into the galaxy. And in order to wage war against the invaders, the Jedi and their allies decide it''d be best to understand them. Leia Organa Solo, with her daughter Jaina and Danni Quee, work to bring various forces throughout the Outer Rim territories to unite against the threat of the Yuuzhan Vong, backed up by pockets of the New Republic military. Luke Skywalker takes his nephew Jacen Solo with him to Belkaden to find out what the Yuuzhan Vong have done there after the late Yomin Carr poisoned it for terraforming in the previous novel. Meanwhile, Jacen''s brother, Anakin, is to take Luke''s wife, Mara, to the planet Dantooine where she can find time to combat the Vong disease, brought upon secretly by Nom Anor, ravaging her insides. During that time, Mara will also train Anakin to look and use the Force in ways he never imagined as an apprentice. Elsewhere, Jedi Knights Corran Horn and Ganner Rhysode are assigned to the planet Bimmiel to find missing university students. On Belkaden, during Luke and Jacen''s observation of Vong behaviors and routines, Jacen, in his sleep, sees a vision of himself saving various people by defeating several Vong warriors. He takes this vision as an omen that he must free the slaves that the Yuuzhan Vong are holding, and so he goes and confronts a few. He is easily beaten, however, and is strapped to the Embrace of Pain, a Vong torture device. He is soon implanted with a slave coral seed, but it isn''t long before Luke saves him after fighting through and killing various Yuuzhan Vong warriors and snapping the coral seed out of his face. Luke then tells Jacen that they now must go to Dantooine, where Anakin and Mara are now on the run from Vong scouts. They get there and help them out in defeating the Yuuzhan Vong who intended to kill Mara and Anakin. On Bimmiel, Corran and Ganner find out that the missing university students are being held by two Yuuzhan Vong warriors, who are treating their slaves as much as those Vong on Belkaden do. The two Jedi go and save the students, but are then confronted by the Vong warriors. Corran orders Ganner to get the students out of there while he will take care of the Vong. He is able to dispatch both warriors, but at extensive injury. Fortunately, those injuries would not reach their full lethal potential, as Ganner would return to retrieve Corran so that they can leave the planet with the students. On Dantooine, refugees from the recently Yuuzhan Vong-conquered Dubrillion are settled down. But it isn''t long before the Vong then arrive, launching the Battle of Dantooine, resulting in the loss of fifty percent of the New Republic''s forces, but the losses are extensive for the Vong, too. Nevertheless, the Vong still win, and the New Republic evacuate what they can. The novel ends back on Bimmiel, where investigating Yuuzhan Vong, led by Commander Shedao Shai, discover the remains of the two dead Vong warriors, defeated by Corran. Shai takes a ndgin (a Vong creature made to sop up blood) and tastes it for Corran''s spilled blood that was the result of his injuries. Shai vows that he will kill the Jedi responsible for his the deaths of his kinsmen (the Vong warriors who were killed thanks to Corran).

Dark Tide: Onslaught

In the mid-19th century, Father Gstir is sent from Bavaria to Canada to minister to German-Catholic communities. He is drawn to Shoneval, a farming town situated in a valley in Ontario, and is determined to build a stone church with a bell. Joseph Becker, a master woodcarver, helps him. Later, Becker tries to pass on his carving skills to his grandson, Tilman, but the boy is unenthusiastic. Tilman suffers from constant restlessness and is unable to stay in one place, often running away from the settlement for weeks at a time. Aged 12 he leaves for good. Becker''s granddaughter, Klara, by contrast, is eager to learn the carving trade and Becker reluctantly teaches her. Klara falls in love with Eamon, the silent son of an Irish family, but she is hurt when he leaves her to fight in World War I. After he is reported as ''missing'' Klara is devastated, and attempts to shut out her memory of him and her emotions, and lives the life of a spinster. After leaving home, Tilman spends several years as a hobo on the roads and rails. He eventually meets up with a tramp named Refuto, who had left home because he felt guilty for indirectly killing his brother. Later, Refuto decides to try returning home, fearful that his family will not forgive his wrongs. Refuto brings Tilman with him to the Italian district of Hamilton; Tilman befriends Refuto''s son Giorgio and lives with the family for a time. But when war comes Tilman serves in the trenches of France, where he is ''injured out'' after losing his leg in battle at Vimy Ridge. Aged in his 40s, Tilman returns to Shoneval, and Klara is reunited with the brother who had been assumed dead years ago. She becomes determined to travel to France with Tilman to help carve the massive Vimy Memorial being built by Walter Allward. After overcoming her brother''s reluctance they travel to France and start work on the monument, Klara disguised as a man. After some weeks, and without permission, Klara sculpts Eamon''s face on a key statue on the top of the memorial. Despite his initial anger, Allward sees how the change personalises and enhances the monument. He retains the alteration. Klara falls in love with Giorgio, who is also working on the monument, and for the first time since Eamon''s death she opens up her emotions. Tilman also opens himself up to physical intimacy for the first time, with a war-wounded French chef. The novel ends with the imposing memorial completed, Allward all but forgotten, and Klara and Tilman now leading emotionally fulfilling lives with their partners in Canada, having memorialised the people they knew who had been taken by the war.

The Stone Carvers

Freddy is convincing Sniffy the skunk to read Robin Hood when Mr. Boomschmidt arrives at the Bean farm with Boomschmidt’s Stupendous and Unexcelled Circus (formerly Boomschmidt’s Colossal and Unparalleled Circus). He has a "snorter" of a dilemma, as he puts it. Mr. Boom invites the Bean animals to his small circus to observe. The show is interrupted by Mr. Condiment’s lawyer, who claims that performer Mademoiselle Rose is endangered by the circus animals. The Bean farm animals easily put the lie to that, but the show is interrupted again by a plane bombing with sacks of flour. The performance is ruined. Finally the truth comes from Mr. Boom who "pretended to be a lot more simple-minded than he was so as to mix people up": Condiment is behind the disruptions: forcing Rose to marry him. Freddy decides to learn to fly, and to chase the bomber. The flying instructor says he will be chasing a World War II fighter — faster than any plane Freddy can acquire. At any rate, Mr. Bean is so proud of Freddy he buys him a plane and turns Bean farmland into an airstrip. Reading of Freddy’s feat in the newspapers attracts inventor Uncle Ben to the farm to perfect his bombsite, but the device cannot be perfected before generals come to evaluate it. They leave, unsatisfied. In disguise as a woman, Freddy investigates Condiment. Condiment is pressuring the bookstore owner into carrying his comics, including Lorna, the Leopard Woman, In the Lair of the Great Serpent. The circus boa constrictor sneaks up on Condiment as a prank, suggesting, "Want a little hug?" He flees in terror, giving Freddy the idea to pose as Lorna. Using a phony Spanish accent, he visits Condiment, letting drop that he is the Leopard Woman. Uncle Ben considers undermining enemies by selling them his defective bombsite, until Freddy discovers by accident that it is good at finding lost change. (This eventually proves to be more interesting to the generals.) Freddy''s is plane now freed from bombsite testing, he takes it up for a ride. He arrives at the circus in time to spot the mysterious plane. He gives chase, but is outdistanced. Back in his Leopard Woman disguise, Freddy lures Condiment into a dark circus trailer. He claims Condiment promised to marry him, and is enraged. The lights go off, and Freddy substitutes a live leopard for himself. When Condiment revives from fainting, Freddy is back, with Rose at his side. Condiment is convinced Freddy is the Leopard Woman, and cancels the comic. Freddy hopes Condiment is sufficiently frightened to leave Rose alone. For days, unseen, Freddy follows the mysterious plane, starting closer to its destination each time, and finally locating its secret airfield. He returns to discover the skunks have taken Robin Hood to heart, and sporting quarterstaffs and bows. This gives Freddy the notion to use them as spies, parachuted by umbrella onto the distant airfield. The pig encourages the unenthusiastic skunks appropriately: :"''Why, how now, lads?'' he said. ''Ye tell me ye be bound for a life of adventure in the merry greenwood, and yet methinks ye hang back when ‘tis question of trading hard knocks with a stout foe.''" (p. 131) They protest they are not cowards like rabbits — which is overheard by one of the "Horrible Ten" gang of rabbits. This leads to two fracases, but the rabbits are appeased when allowed to join the mission. The team is successfully dropped on the airfield. After a couple days they tire of spying, and determine to destroy the plane. Without resources, they steal gunpowder from the criminals in a house by the airfield, and are highly pleased when they succeed in destroying it. Unaware, Freddy lands, and is discovered by Condiment not only to be a pig, but also the Leopard Woman. He is taken prisoner, but is soon freed by the skunks and rabbits. They easily convince Condiment he is about to be roasted and eaten for “People who read comics will believe almost anything”. Condiment is tied up, but later escapes, so the confrontation continues, until the gang escapes. Freddy’s detective partner, Mrs. Wiggins the cow, arrives in disguise, fooling him, and giving her the opportunity to say, "I know you! You’re the fat, lazy good-for-nothing pig that lives on poor old Mr. Bean." She disguises herself as the Demon Woman of Grisly Gulch — another character in Condiment’s comic books. Completely cowed, as it were, Condiment is forced to write a confession of his crimes. Back at the circus, Rose cries when she reads it. In the moment of emotion, Condiment realizes he has a bargaining chip: in exchange for dropping charges, he informs Mr. Boom that Rose wants to marry him. There is a wedding the next day, and for the first time since Freddy has known him, Mr. Boom mixes himself up.

Freddy the Pilot

The third novel in The Path of Return Trilogy, Letters from the Afterworld, begins with Rickshaw reminiscing about his wedding to Crystal Meadows a year before. Crystal is an almost blind fortuneteller, daughter of Carmela de Avila, and a former apprentice on the Path of Return. The event brought together the five members of the Posse, a renegade faction of Sigma Nu Mu at Berkeley. Following a reunion nostalgia that flushes out Rickshaw’s early family life and friends, Rickshaw attends an advertised seance sponsored by Paradigm Research Institute at Kirkwood Inn in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, conducted by a famous medium with a gift for automatic writing. At Kirkwood Inn, he meets new friends and during the seance receives a channeled letter for his friend Murdock. According to the afterworld letter, Murdock is on a soul recall list of people whose souls prematurely inhabited their selected bodies this time around on planet Earth. Besides Murdock, other friends of Rickshaw and Crystal have dreams of similar recall letters and incur near fatal illnesses and accidents to ensure they will comply with the letters’ intentionally vague instructioins. Rickshaw and Crystal try to get a hold of Jamayah who is on another sailing adventure in Cabo San Lucas. Jamayah seems reluctant to respond, but eventually gets word to Rickshaw to seek out Raoul - destination unknown. Eventually desperate, Rickshaw travels to Tijuana to find Raoul. Surprisingly, Juan (an acquaintance in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return), finds Rickshaw and takes him to his brother’s (Carlos) mobile home at Rosarita Beach. Juan informs Rickshaw that Jamayah believes hybrid souls (souls who formerly incarnated on an alien planet), are exploiting humans for enzymatic blood transfusions. The hybrid souls’ former embodied lives limited their current metabolism, which translates to a shorter life span and more illnesses. The tradeoff is they have amazing psychic powers. Juan knows because he is a hybrid soul himself, once healed by Jamayah, who we discover was a restoration master (one who prepares souls for return) between embodied lives. Stakes are raised when Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan are kidnapped and a ten year old son of Crystal’s friend is murdered. Rickshaw, Jamayah, SBL, Weird Willie, Raoul, Juan, Apollo, and a modern day Billy the Kid mobilize the Cosmic Rangers and drive to Mexico to find Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan. After finding a torched police car and three dead policemen, they discover a sustainable society of thousands of hybrid souls living underground, and with a medical clinic for the enzymatic blood transfusions that will extend their longevity and restore the health of their soul-race. As becomes necessary, all of the hybrid souls are in instant communication with each another by telepathy. The Cosmic Rangers manipulate Wasabi Kuroda, spokesperson for the hybrid clan, to give them an underground tour to check the condition of Murdock and Dan. Once inside and entrapped behind vault doors, where they find their friends drugged for the transfusion, a war begins between the formidable hybrid forces armed to the hilt and the Cosmic Rangers. Fighting their way out with explosives and automatic weapons, the Cosmic Rangers escape above ground where the last bloody battle gives way to freedom and justice for all. The Cosmic Rangers return home to their various lifestyles. Jamayah goes on another fishing voyage. Five years pass and Rickshaw visits Naomi, the crone psychic. She informs him that Jamayah, Bamboo II, and the captain died when Zephyra, (the yacht), capsized in a storm. She also informs him that she has less than a year to live herself because of diabetes. In the end, Carmela visits Rickshaw and tells him that Jamayah visited her after his death with the information that Rickshaw is also a hybrid soul, but not to worry. Jamayah has taken care of all the karmic repercussions. Rickshaw and Crystal should live a healthy, long, and wonderful life.

Letters from the Afterworld

The Genocides describes the genocide of humans by aliens who seed Earth with enormous crop plants. The Plants are massive and rapidly out-compete terrestrial flora, forming a monoculture. They appear unwholesome to the native fauna, and starvation seems inevitable. The novel opens with a small rural community struggling for survival on the border of Lake Superior. Urban society appears to have collapsed by this point. The community, lead by Anderson and his family, eke out an existence by siphoning sap from the Plants to irrigate their corn crop. Anderson is a conservative and religious man, harsh and uncompromising. His focus on survival has kept the community alive long after many have died. His rules include the harsh treatment of outsiders who are routinely killed unless they are of use to the community. Newcomers arrive bringing with them news of spherical machines that are incinerating every trace of humanity left on Earth, including burning the abandoned cities and remaining survivors. Most of the newcomers are killed and, the novel implies, ground into sausage meat and consumed. The two remaining have useful skills: Alice is a nurse and the Jeremiah a mining engineer. Jeremiah vows a personal revenge on Anderson and his family, but begins by ingratiating himself in the community. Jeremiah courts Anderson''s thirteen-year-old daughter, Blossom. He befriends Anderson''s educated son, Buddy. During the harsh winter, the spherical machines come to incinerate the community. Jeremiah sees his revenge coming to fruition. Those who survive the initial conflagration flee into a cave. There they discover the Plants'' roots are hollow and form a massive and interlocking underground network. Jeremiah suggests they go deeper, pointing out that they will be able to escape the winter underground. They discover the "fruit" of the plants is housed in the root system: a nutritious pulp the community begins to consume. Anderson, who lost his wife Lady when fleeing, is weakened. When he is bitten by a rat, gangrene sets in and he declines quickly. His final words to his brutish son, Neil, are to let Jeremiah take over leading the community and to allow Jeremiah to marry Blossom. Neil is angered by these words, and murders Anderson. The nurse Alice sees the signs of murder on Anderson, but Neil murders her before she can share her revelation. The community breaks up. Jeremiah goes in search of Blossom, planning to kill her when he finds her and commit his ultimate revenge. When he does find her, he experiences a change of heart and falls in love. They try to return, but find Neil has sabotaged their escape and his own. In the dark they cannot find their way back. Neil, Jeremiah, Blossom and Buddy struggle underground. Neil is overcome and abandoned in the dark. When the few survivors return to the diminishing group, they find machines have come to harvest the Plants'' crop. Without the pulp to live on, the survivors return to the surface. On the surface it is spring, and a new crop of Plants have been sown by the mysterious aliens. The malnourished group has no chance of survival, and the novel closes on the Jeremiah and Blossom leaving the few other survivors to travel into the wilderness. The pair, starving and mismatched in age, are portrayed as a distorted mirror image of the biblical Adam and Eve and herald the end of humanity instead of the beginning.

The Genocides

The Old Curiosity Shop tells the story of Nell Trent, a beautiful and virtuous young girl of ''not quite fourteen.'' An orphan, she lives with her maternal grandfather (whose name is never revealed) in his shop of odds and ends. Her grandfather loves her dearly, and Nell does not complain, but she lives a lonely existence with almost no friends her own age. Her only friend is Kit, an honest boy employed at the shop, whom she is teaching to write. Secretly obsessed with ensuring that Nell does not die in poverty as her parents did, her grandfather attempts to make Nell a good inheritance through gambling at cards. He keeps his nocturnal games a secret, but borrows heavily from the evil Daniel Quilp, a malicious, grotesquely deformed, hunchbacked dwarf moneylender. In the end, he gambles away what little money they have, and Quilp seizes the opportunity to take possession of the shop and evict Nell and her grandfather. Her grandfather suffers a breakdown that leaves him bereft of his wits, and Nell takes him away to the Midlands of England, to live as beggars. Convinced that the old man has stored up a fortune for Nell, her wastrel brother Frederick convinces the good-natured but easily-led Dick Swiveller to help him track Nell down so that Swiveller can marry her and the two can share Nell''s supposed inheritance. To this end, they join forces with Quilp, who knows full well that there is no fortune, but sadistically chooses to ''help'' in order to enjoy the misery it will inflict on all concerned. Quilp begins to try to track Nell down, but the fugitives are not easily discovered. To keep Dick Swiveller under his eye, Quilp arranges for him to be taken as a clerk by Quilp''s lawyer, Mr. Brass. At the Brass firm, Dick befriends the mistreated servant maid and nicknames her ''the Marchioness''. Nell, having fallen in with a number of characters, some villainous and some kind, succeeds in leading her grandfather to safe haven in a far off village (identified by Dickens as Tong, Shropshire), but this has come at a considerable cost to Nell''s health. Meanwhile, Kit, having lost his job at the curiosity shop, has found new employment with the kind Mr and Mrs Garland. Here he is contacted by a mysterious ''single gentleman'' who is looking for news of Nell and her grandfather. The ''single gentleman'' and Kit''s mother go after them unsuccessfully, and encounter Quilp, who is also hunting for the runaways. Quilp forms a grudge against Kit and has him framed as a thief. Kit is sentenced to transportation. However, Dick Swiveller proves Kit''s innocence with the help of his friend the Marchioness. Quilp is hunted down and dies trying to escape his pursuers. At the same time, a coincidence leads Mr Garland to knowledge of Nell''s whereabouts, and he, Kit, and the single gentleman (who turns out to be the younger brother of Nell''s grandfather) go to find her. Sadly, by the time they arrive, Nell has died as a result of her arduous journey. Her grandfather, already mentally infirm, refuses to admit she is dead and sits every day by her grave waiting for her to come back, until a few months later, he dies himself. The events of the book seem to take place around 1825. In Chapter 29, Miss Monflathers refers to the death of Lord Byron, who died on April 19, 1824. When the inquest rules (incorrectly) that Quilp committed suicide, his corpse is ordered to be buried at a crossroads with a stake through its heart, a practice banned in 1826. And Nell''s grandfather, after his breakdown, fears that he shall be sent to a madhouse, and there chained to a wall and whipped; these practices went out of use after about 1830. In Chapter 13, the lawyer Mr. Brass is described as "one of Her Majesty''s attornies" , putting him in the reign of Queen Victoria, which began in 1837, but given all the other evidence, and the fact that Kit, at his trial, is charged with acting "against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King" (referring to George IV), this must be a slip of the pen.

The Old Curiosity Shop

Father Wolf and Mother Wolf (Raksha), a pair of Indian wolves raising a family of cubs, are furious to learn that Shere Khan the lame tiger is hunting in their part of the jungle because he might kill men and bring human retribution upon the jungle. But when Father Wolf hears something approaching their den it turns out not to be the tiger but a naked baby. Mother Wolf decides to adopt the hairless "man-cub". Her determination is only strengthened by the arrival of Shere Khan who demands the cub for his meal. The wolves drive off the tiger and Raksha names him Mowgli the Frog because of his hairlessness. At the wolf pack''s meeting at Council Rock Baloo the bear speaks for the man-cub and Bagheera the panther buys his life with a freshly killed bull. Baloo and Bagheera undertake the task of educating Mowgli as he grows. Meanwhile Shere Khan plans to take revenge on the wolf pack by persuading the younger wolves to depose their leader Akela. When Mowgli is about 11 or 12 Bagheera tells him of Shere Khan''s plan. Mowgli, being human, is the only creature in the jungle that does not fear fire, so he steals a pot of burning coals from a nearby village in order to use it against Shere Khan. The young wolves prevent Akela from catching his prey, and at that night''s meeting Shere Khan demands that Akela be killed and the man-cub given to him. Mowgli, despite being naked and unprotected, attacks Shere Khan with a burning branch and drives him and his allies away, but realises to his sorrow that he must now leave the pack and return to humanity. As he leaves he vows to return one day and lay Shere Khan''s hide upon the Council Rock. The story of Mowgli''s return to humanity is told in "Tiger! Tiger!" and continued in "Letting in the Jungle".

Mowgli''s Brothers

The book''s protagonist, Stephen Gordon, is born in the late Victorian era to upper-class parents in Worcestershire who are expecting a boy and who christen her with the boy''s name they had already chosen. Even at birth she is physically unusual, a "narrow-hipped, wide-shouldered little tadpole of a baby". As a girl she hates dresses, wants to cut her hair short, and longs to be a boy. At seven, she develops a crush on a housemaid named Collins, and is devastated when she sees Collins kissing a footman. Stephen''s father, Sir Phillip, dotes on her; he seeks to understand her through the writings of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first modern writer to propose a theory of homosexuality, but does not share his findings with Stephen. Her mother, Lady Anna, is distant, seeing Stephen as a "blemished, unworthy, maimed reproduction" of Sir Phillip. At eighteen, Stephen forms a close friendship with a Canadian man, Martin Hallam, but is horrified when he declares his love for her. The following winter, Sir Phillip is crushed by a falling tree; at the last moment he tries to explain to Lady Anna that Stephen is an invert, but dies without managing to do so. Stephen begins to dress in masculine clothes made by a tailor rather than a dressmaker. At twenty-one she falls in love with Angela Crossby, the American wife of a new neighbor. Angela uses Stephen as an "anodyne against boredom", allowing her "a few rather schoolgirlish kisses". Then Stephen discovers that Angela is having an affair with a man. Fearing exposure, Angela shows a letter from Stephen to her husband, who sends a copy to Stephen''s mother. Lady Anna denounces Stephen for "presum[ing] to use the word love in connection with&nbsp;... these unnatural cravings of your unbalanced mind and undisciplined body." Stephen replies, "As my father loved you, I loved&nbsp;... It was good, good, good&nbsp;– I''d have laid down my life a thousand times over for Angela Crossby." After the argument, Stephen goes to her father''s study and for the first time opens his locked bookcase. She finds a book by Krafft-Ebing&nbsp;– assumed by critics to be Psychopathia Sexualis, a text about homosexuality and paraphilias&nbsp;– and, reading it, learns that she is an invert. Stephen moves to London and writes a well-received first novel. Her second novel is less successful, and her friend the playwright Jonathan Brockett, himself an invert, urges her to travel to Paris to improve her writing through a fuller experience of life. There she makes her first, brief contact with urban invert culture, meeting the lesbian salon hostess Valérie Seymour. During World War I she joins an ambulance unit, eventually serving at the front and earning the Croix de Guerre. She falls in love with a younger fellow driver, Mary Llewellyn, who comes to live with her after the war ends. They are happy at first, but Mary becomes lonely when Stephen returns to writing. Rejected by polite society, Mary throws herself into Parisian gay nightlife. Stephen believes Mary is becoming hardened and embittered and feels powerless to provide her with "a more complete and normal existence". Martin Hallam, now living in Paris, rekindles his old friendship with Stephen. In time, he falls in love with Mary. Persuaded that she cannot give Mary happiness, Stephen pretends to have an affair with Valérie Seymour to drive her into Martin''s arms. The novel ends with Stephen''s plea to God: "Give us also the right to our existence!"

The Well of Loneliness

After defeating Napoleon''s forces at the battle of Dover, Laurence and Temeraire are confronted by envoys from Imperial China, including Prince Yongxing, brother of the Jiaqing Emperor. The Chinese are eager to get their rare Celestial dragon back from the British. Celestials are only allowed to accompany royalty—Temeraire was intended for Napoleon, Emperor of the French—and Laurence, a mere commoner, is deemed unworthy of Temeraire by the Chinese. After several failed attempts to convince Laurence and the Royal Aerial Corps to return Temeraire to China, the Chinese and the British agree to have Temeraire and his flight crew — including Laurence — accompany the Imperial envoys back to China. As the land routes are deemed unsafe, the Navy has a dragon transport, HMS Allegiance, captained by Laurence''s former second officer Tom Riley, ferry the Celestial and his crew on a voyage to China. During the voyage, attempts are made on the life of Laurence in order to remove him from Temeraire. In addition, political machinations on the part of the British, French, and Chinese are discovered that threaten the position of Britain in the East, as well as the stability of the Chinese throne. Finally, Laurence has ongoing difficulties with both Captain Riley, a staunch supporter of the slave trade (Laurence himself descends from known abolitionists) and the diplomat Arthur Hammond, sent along to smooth the operation. During the sea voyage, Temeraire catches a respiratory illness from Volatilus, a slow-minded though sweet-natured Winchester serving in the courier corps who visits the Allegiance with dispatches. By use of a posset made using an extremely smelly mushroom, the cooks of the Chinese delegation are able to restore Temeraire to health. This event, though seemingly unimportant at the moment, shapes the next two novels of the series. After their arrival in China, Temeraire gets to meet his family, including his mother, and sees the greatly improved conditions of dragonkind in China: Chinese dragons are citizens in their own right and, amongst other things, may take the Confucian civil service exam. He also begins courting an Imperial dragon named Mei. Laurence, meanwhile, suffers more direct attempts on his life, including confrontations with Yongxing and his companion, the albino Celestial Lien. Hammond is able to deduce that Yongxing has designs on Prince Mianning, the heir-apparent whose dragon is Temeraire''s twin brother, and that Temeraire was sent to France not because the Chinese esteem Napoleon but so that Temeraire himself could not be used to complicate the line of succession. Thus, his presence is necessary to lend legitimacy to any puppet king Yongxing intends to set upon the throne. At a theatre production in the British delegation''s honor, Yongxing attempts to put his plans in motion, but is prevented by the actions of Temeraire and Laurence, and is himself killed in the ensuing scuffle. As a result, the Emperor of China himself adopts Laurence as an honorary son, at a stroke resolving the issues with Laurence''s social status and easing relations with Britain. Temeraire, after much deliberation, decides to return to Britain, partially out of love for Laurence and partially to attempt to bring the greater civil liberties of China back to the commonwealth.

Throne of Jade

Miri is a fourteen-year-old girl from Mount Eskel, an isolated territory of Danland, who has never been allowed to work with the rest of the villagers in the quarry that keeps the community alive. Because of this, she feels like an outcast in the community and cut off from the culture focused around a shared working life in the quarry. As the quarry can barely cut enough linder to feed the villagers, Miri keeps on trying to help. In spite of her feelings of isolation, Miri is very close to her father and her sister, Marda, and she shares a close friendship with a boy named Peder. Unexpectedly, a messenger from the king arrives along with the usual traders from the lowlands. The messenger announces that the nation''s priests have informed the nation that, despite the lack of education provided for the villagers and the prejudice that exists between the mountain villagers and the lowlanders, the crown prince''s future bride will come from Mount Eskel. A "princess academy" is established near the village to train the potential princesses, with compulsory attendance for every girl aged between twelve and seventeen. At the end of the year, the prince will visit the academy and choose the girl to be the next princess. Miri and the other girls attend the academy, and although they struggle to appease the strict teacher, Tutor Olana, Miri excels at learning and commerce. All the girls are eager to please the prince and win a comfortable life for themselves and their families, and Miri''s new knowledge of commerce helps the village prosper in trading with the lowlanders. After a disagreement, the girls use their knowledge of diplomacy to negotiate a more bearable living arrangement with Tutor Olana, including weekly visits home. Miri also begins to explore the mechanics of quarry-speech, a form of unspoken communication used only in the quarry, and makes friends with some of the other girls, including Britta, a lowlander who had recently moved to Mount Eskel. Miri''s excellence in her studies and her willingness to help her peers despite bitter competition eventually earn her the title of academy princess and the privilege of having the first dance with the prince. At the academy ball, the prince dances with every girl except Britta, who is ill, and generally acts very distant. Later in the evening, he takes a walk with Miri and shows a more human side. However, he leaves without choosing a bride. Once the prince has left, promising to return in the spring to announce his choice, bandits attack the academy hoping to hold the new princess hostage. Miri must use her new knowledge of quarry speech to call for help from the village. At first no one seems to hear her, but eventually she is able to contact Peder. The villagers come to the academy through the blizzard, and the girls escape from the bandits and spend the winter at home with their families. In the spring, the prince returns and chooses to marry Britta - whom he has known since childhood - and names Mount Eskel an official province. The book ends with Peder and Miri admitting their feelings toward each other.

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