Charlotte Roseman disappears from Octagon  Academy For Girls holding a message with sad news: her father, Liam Roseman, is missing and his plane is destroyed. His last message, “Don’t forget to protect time,’’ spins in her head- filling her with butterflies.

After running through the corridor and down a snowy avenue, she freezes to hold her breath inside the shade, where she is happy to be back with Bella- her robot cat. Although singed from the plane crash, Bella is faultless, and Charlotte turns her up, healing her hip and loving friendship.

After that afternoon, Charlotte and Bella go to MoonTown’s Horologists, to look for her late dead grandma’s old remembered clock. The amazingly manufactured clock piece, embellished with a mer pup, that used to stand on her cupboard, giving consolation during sleepless evenings.

To Charlotte, the clock was more than a clock, it was  a sad reminder of her grandma’s love for her and how she had died. But Bella says that the clock might give them answers about her missing father-making his  appearance an emergency. 

Stimulated by Bella’s idea, Charlotte starts working on the plan at speed . “There’s no time to waste,” said Bella, as they planned everything for the journey to Apricot Bridge street, to protect the clock before it gets into the wrong hands.