1941. The world is radically different from the one usually depicted in history. Napoleon V reigns over France, where, like everywhere else on the globe, scholars and scientist are mysteriously disappearing, depriving humanity of major inventions. This has been going on for seventy years. Unaware in particular of the radio, television, electricity, aviation, and the combustion engine, this world has got stuck in out-of-date technology, as though slumbering in nineteenth century knowledge, governed by coal and steam. 
In this strange world, April, a young girl, sets out to find her scientist parents, who have disappeared. April is accompanied by Darwin, her talking cat, and Julius, a young street urchin. This trio must cope with the dangers and mysteries of this Extraordinary World. Who has been kidnapping the scholars and scientists for decades?
And for what sinister purpose?