The dodo is extinct and every American knows it. Caroline Platzer certainly does when she explains it to a very upset Princess Kristina. But, that was then and this is the seventeenth century! The last recorded sighting of the dodo was in 1662 and now it is only the year of our lord 1635. Is 1635 too late to save the dodo? Even if it's not, is it humanly possible? Princess Kristina is determined to find out! But how? Enter Pam Miller, Grantville's resident birdwatcher and nature lover. When asked by the Princess to lead a mission to the distant Indian Ocean Isle of Mauritius to prevent the hapless dodo's inevitable extinction, Pam balks at first, but finds herself drawn to the challenge as inexorably as a moth to the flame, for wasn't saving the dodo one of her own childhood dreams? She and Princess Kristina hatch a plan, bonded by their mutual love for the natural world.The whole thing will be terribly risky, a long journey in a sailing ship around the Horn of Africa and out into the still mostly unexplored vastness of the Southern Indian Ocean, Can Pam Miller save the dodo? Can she save herself and her companions from the multitude of threats they will face along the way? The only thing Pam knows for sure is that second chances are hard to come by.