Marie-Grace is excited that a well-known English opera company will perform at the very theater where she takes singing lessons from Aunt Océane, but as she and her friend Cécile help out backstage, the make disturbing discoveries.

"Marie-Grace can't wait to begin her journey up the Mississippi River with her father. The steamboat they're traveling on is the biggest and fanciest boat Marie-Grace has ever seen. It's crowded with all sorts of interesting passengers, including Wilhelmina Newman, a girl her age. Wilhelmina is traveling alone, and she's carrying a secret in one of her trunks--clues to hidden Gold Rush treasure. Marie-Grace and Wilhelmina have to unravel the clues...

Discusses the reasons French people left their homeland to come to America, the experiences the immigrants had in the new country, and the contributions this cultural group made to American society. Includes sidebars and activities.

"Born Betsy Bowen into grinding poverty, the woman who became Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Yet by the end of her life, "Madame Jumel" was one of America's richest women, with servants of her own, a New York mansion and Saratoga Springs summer home, a major art collection, and several hundred acres of land. During her remarkable rise, she acquired a fortune from...