Solomon's Gold Daniel Waterhouse returns to England from his "Technologickal College" project in Boston in order to try to resolve the feud between
Isaac Newton and
Gottfried Leibniz over
who invented calculus. Someone attempts to assassinate him with an "Infernal Device" (a
time bomb), and Waterhouse forms a club to find out who did it and prosecute them. It later turns out that the bomb was intended for his friend Isaac Newton. Jack Shaftoe, under the alias Jack the Coiner, attempts a heist at the
Tower of London.
Currency Daniel Waterhouse and Isaac attempt to track down Jack Shaftoe for his counterfeiting crimes and
tampering with the Pyx. Meanwhile Eliza aids Princess Caroline of the Hanovers as her life is threatened amid the scheming over the successor to Queen Anne. Warring militias gather in London and the Whigs and Tories face off.
The System of the World Newton dies of
typhus (then known as
gaol fever) immediately prior to the
Trial of the Pyx, but is brought back to life with the
philosopher's stone. Jack eventually confesses to his counterfeiting crimes and is hanged but the watching crowd intervene and he survives, unknown to Newton. Jack is reunited with his love Eliza, and they live out their days in the court of
Louis XIV. ==Style==