This book is the sequel to Tibu and Tovaira Defy the Rising Sun. It is early 1942 in East New Britain, Rabaul has fallen to the invading Japanese. Australian boy 14 year old Johhny Read aka Tovaira, is trapped behind Japanese lines. With the help of his lifelong Tolai friend, Tibu, he is trying to avoid capture. Due to an unfortunate chain of events, Tomarum's sorcery ritual to help Tovaira escape detection by the Japanese, goes spectacularly wrong. Tibu and Tovaira are transported through time to 1914. Tibu, Tovaira, Tomarum, and eleven year old Prahu skipper Elijah then solve the riddle of the Australian Submarine AE-1's disappearance. But then the evil Jurgen Shultz, a Blackbirder, captures the boys and things are looking grim for them.