When pirates kidnap ten-and-a-half-year-old Alex Morningside's beloved new teacher, Mr. Underwood, Alex sets off on a journey to rescue him, along the way encountering a steady stream of hilarious and colorful characters.

Timothy Freshwater—a smart-aleck boy who just got expelled from the last school in the city—learns that the Chinese mail clerk at his father's office is really an enslaved dragon who, with Timothy's help, must scale the Dragon's Gate in order to resume his true form. By the author of Alex and the Ironic Gentleman.