James lives in a biracial, musical family which he finds tedious at times. When the family is called to London for his mother to perform, James goes sight-seeing with his father. (Oh, no, not again). On one of these visits in London, James discovered a portal that leads him to the 1600's. What happens theatrically and politically during the 1600's leads to a real education for James (and the reader). What a difference in how people lived then and now. He must solve a problem from the 1600's before he can return to present London. A great book for boys that like history from the point of time travel.