Dr. Evelyn "Evie" Reed, a brilliant but unconventional historian specializing in obscure alchemical theories, finally gets her chance at academic validation when she inherits her eccentric great-aunt's bizarre collection. Hidden within it, Evie discovers "The Chrono-Alchemist's Ledger," a meticulously coded journal by the notorious 17th-century alchemist, Marius Thorne. The Ledger details not the transmutation of gold, but the terrifyingly precise method of "temporal transposition"?a ritual for swapping consciousness across time during a rare celestial alignment.
Driven by intellectual curiosity, Evie meticulously prepares to observe the approaching alignment, never intending to perform the ritual. However, during the celestial peak, a forgotten catalyst within the Ledger activates, violently ripping Evie's consciousness from her body and thrusting it into Marius Thorne's archaic 17th-century laboratory. Simultaneously, Marius's malevolent consciousness inhabits Evie's modern-day body.
Trapped in a world of grime, disease, and superstition, Evie struggles to navigate the harsh realities of the 17th century while masquerading as the feared alchemist. She uncovers Marius's true, horrifying obsession: to unleash a "chrono-plague," a devastating affliction that subtly alters reality, causing objects, memories, and even people to slowly destabilize and vanish from existence. Evie must quickly decipher Marius's dark research, evade the suspicions of his paranoid apprentice, Silas, and learn enough of his arcane methods to find a way back to her own time and reverse the swap.
Meanwhile, in the present, Marius, reveling in Evie's body, quickly adapts to the wonders of modern technology. With access to the internet, advanced chemistry, and quantum computing, he begins to accelerate his chrono-plague, envisioning a global "purification" of reality. Evie's closest friend, Dr. Anya Sharma, a sharp quantum physicist, immediately notices the alarming changes in "Evie's" personality and erratic behavior. As inexplicable "glitches" and reality shifts begin to plague the world, Anya teams up with Agent Marcus Thorne, a federal anomaly investigator, racing against time to understand and combat the growing chaos.
Both Evie and Marius are simultaneously pursued by an ancient, secretive society of "Watchers" who have long monitored temporal anomalies. As the chrono-plague escalates, threatening to unravel the very fabric of existence, Evie discovers a critical counter-ritual in the past, while Marius prepares for a final, catastrophic temporal event during the next celestial alignment.
In a desperate, multi-temporal climax, Evie, guided by the ancient society and aided by newfound allies in the past, attempts to perform the counter-ritual, even as Marius, now a master of modern chaos, unleashes his full-scale chrono-plague on the present. The fate of two timelines, and reality itself, hangs in the balance as Evie battles to reclaim her body and stop Marius's apocalyptic vision, leading to a harrowing reversal of the swap and a world forever changed by the echoes of a past that nearly consumed it. Evie emerges scarred but uniquely equipped to understand and protect a reality now known to be far more fragile than anyone imagined.
