Ellie is furious when her twin brother Cypselis bets the school bully Big Bacchiad that he can beat him in a foot race or give her up as a slave, and tries to come up with a way to ensure her brother's victory.
Felix, a shepherd boy, finds a horse in the hills and trains it to become a racer for his brother Faustus, a charioteer in Rome who is saving to buy his freedom.
Darius, an Athenian, tries to prove his worth to the cruel Spartans after a plague forces him to leave his home and take up residence with his uncle, a Spartan general.
Lydia, a slave in the household of the great thinker and inventor Archimedes, is always denounced as stupid by her master, but he is not above using her ideas to make some of his greatest creations.
Ambu, who is Princess Lakshmi's servant, teaches the princess how to swim, and after the girls encounter a group of boys at the river, Lakshmi accepts a challenge to a race, but on the night of the race Ambu must go in her stead.
Prince Rishi discovers a beautiful horse on the hill and knows it means that King Porus' army is invading his father's kingdom, leaving the prince to wonder what the coming days will bring for him and the horse.
Acheron, the best liar in Troy, is suspicious when a stranger arrives in the city and announces that the Greeks have left without a fight, but he has trouble making anyone listen to his warning.
