This is the fourth book concerning a 1999 West Virginian mining town mysteriously transplanted to 17th-century Germany. Cardinal Richilieu, a power to be reckoned with in France, sees the Americans and their democratic political structure as a threat, and is secretly attempting to undermine them. His latest attempt involves duping some young Americans to disrupt Galileo`s trial for espousing the heretical belief that the Earth goes around the sun.