Summary

The novel opens with a general blueprint of the layout of the RMS Titanic, including a cross section of the E-Deck, with the corridor known as Scotland Road. Other opening pages include a sea shanty and a poem. The poem is about a ship's captain who seldom took off his boots. The boots were named Valor and Virtue. When the boots wore out, the captain threw them into the sea. Then, he jumped into the water, too. Valor and Virtue are the inspiration behind Valora's name and the name she and Jamie use to perform.

Chapter 1 is dated April 10, 1912. Valora Luck is on the dock at Southampton. She is waiting to board the Titanic. Her twin brother left home two years earlier – the same week “Halley's comet brushed the London skies” (1). She felt that one comet arrived when another left. Jamie wanted to...