In 1792, after leaving her violently mad mother behind in revolutionary France, seventeen-year-old Thea Hope travels to England, where she risks losing her own sanity when she creates the legendary Philosopher's Stone.

1792. Thea Hope and her mother are close to creating the legendary Philosopher's Stone, whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold. Just when the promise of the Stone's riches is in their grasp, Thea's mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness. Thea learns that there's a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn't know she exists. There are alchemists at Oxford who are also after the Stone-- and don't believe Thea's warning about the curse. Soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die. -- adapted from jacket