The Industrial Revolution has become all-out war as mad scientists, gifted with the Spark, unleash their insane inventions on an unprepared Europe. For centuries, the Heterodyne family of inventors kept the peace, but the last Heterodyne disappeared twenty years ago, leaving their ally Baron Wulfenbach to maintain order with his fleet of airships and army of Jaeger Monsters. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, Agatha Clay dreams of being a scientist, though her trouble concentrating dooms her to be a lowly minion. When Agatha shows signs of having the Spark, she grabs the attention of the Baron - and the Baron's handsome young son, Gilgamesh. Swept up to the Airship City, Agatha finds herself surrounded by the greatest minds of her generation, as well as palace intrigue, dashing heroes, and an imperial cat. Agatha may be the most brilliant mind of her generation and the key to control of the continent, but first, she has to survive.