A silver watch hurls Karolina and Michal into Warsaw in 1880, where a cloaked stranger gives them a midnight deadline and a mystery tied to their great-grandfather.
As Karolina stepped into the antique shop beneath the clock, a cold prickle ran across the back of her neck. The air smelled of wax, damp paper, and old wood. Behind her, among the crowded shelves and dusty volumes, Michal was already rummaging with restless curiosity.
"Did you know Grandfather worked here as an apprentice?" he whispered, lifting a leather-bound journal from the shelf.
Karolina nodded, but her eyes kept drifting to the narrow counter where Mr. Felix, the grey-haired owner, had promised them a substantial reward if they found Master Bernhard’s missing watch. What they found instead seemed to have been waiting for them.
Between two books lay a tiny silver pocket watch, no bigger than her palm, its case dark with age and the initials K.B. engraved into the lid. Karolina pressed the spring. The cover snapped open.
The shop split apart.
Light flared, the room tilted, and the world seemed to crack like glass. For one dizzying second she felt herself falling through a tunnel of sound and shadow, and then everything went still. Karolina opened her eyes to wet cobblestones, a low evening sky, and the clatter of carriage wheels cutting through the fog. Gas lamps burned along the street. A painted sign creaked overhead: Warsaw, 1880.
Michal was gripping her hand so tightly it hurt. "Karolina... tell me you see this too."
Before she could answer, a woman in a dark cloak stepped out of the mist and stopped directly in front of them. Her face was hidden, but her black eyes were fixed on the watch in Karolina’s hand.
"If you want to return to your time," she said, "you must find the answer before midnight strikes."
Somewhere beyond the fog, a clock began to toll.