When his father loses his fortune, a boy is taken on by a famous shipbuilder and eventually makes a maiden, record-breaking trip around Cape Horn on the "Flying Cloud.".
In 1817 a teenage brother and sister are relieved from the abuses of Newgate Prison in London by the prison reform efforts of Quaker minister Elizabeth Fry.
Tumpie, a young black girl who will later become famous as the dancer Josephine Baker, longs to find the opportunity to dance amid the poverty and vivacious street life of St. Louis in the early 1900s.
Annie Sullivan accepted a colossal challenge when she agreed to teach Helen Keller. From the time Helen learned to eat and behave, until she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe, Annie was always there to help her.
A fictional diary of Nelly Custis records the highlights of her life with "Grandpapa," George Washington, from the time he was elected President until shortly after his death.