~

It's 1893, and the World's Fair presents America with a glittering dream that's only to go up in flames.

Benjamin Price's world is Durmont - quiet, small-town Durmont - and his family's general store, and nothing more, yet he can't shake the anxiety of getting out. Between the guilt he feels from the postman's kindness to the obvious frustration and anger his father feels for him, he does not feel at home anywhere. One choice, a mistake - applying for an academic scholarship in Allisport - is his attempt at a lifeline. Even as he sends off his application, he expects nothing. His world is Durmont, after all.

John "Jack" Byrd Jr.'s wanderlust, to escape his upper-middle-class home in the city of Allisport - metropolitan, ever-growing Allisport - for the World's Fair, for anywhere, is causing tension between him and his father. Between Mr. Byrd Sr.'s expectation to follow in his footsteps with the textile company he's built and Jack's own childish wants, he feels caught between a rock and a hard place. Yet when tasked with picking the Hutchinson Scholarship recipients, Jack picks the recipients out of spite. His world cannot just be Allisport.

As 1893 turns to 1894, and the world starts to burn, it's in the letters that follow - the correspondences between Jack and Ben - that only further complicate things.