Vienna, 1941.
Elena Weiss, daughter of renowned Jewish clockmaker Josef Weiss, has spent her childhood in a workshop filled with gears, cogs, and wonder. But as the Nazis seize control of the city, her father is arrested and his final creation—a masterwork clock rumored to hide a secret of unimaginable power—disappears. With only a worn blueprint and the knowledge her father passed to her in whispers, Elena goes into hiding... but she is being hunted.
Cambridge, Present Day.
Dr. Nina Adler, a brilliant but emotionally withdrawn horologist, finds an old, dust-covered trunk in the archives of Trinity College. Inside is a shattered clock with markings she's never seen before... and a crumpled letter signed E.W. As she restores the timepiece, she uncovers pieces of Elena's life and a secret code woven into the gears—a cipher pointing to a lost invention and a betrayal that may have changed the course of the war.
As Nina digs deeper, the lives of two women—separated by time but connected by legacy—begin to intertwine. But someone else is watching, and the past isn't done ticking yet.
