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Four hundred years of history separate protagonists Jack Stone and Madeleine Archambault and their time at the ancient French castle, Chateau Bouchard, but their stories will collide with life- and history-changing consequences.
Recently expelled Jack Stone travels from England to France with his best friend Will. They will stay with Jack's guardian, Ellen, who has been tasked with renovating Chateau Bouchard, where his father went missing years before. On the journey to the castle, Jack experiences a strange vision of woodland and a long-forgotten statue of a girl warrior, which compounds the mystery of an anonymous letter sent to him at school telling him to find his father. An impossibility, given his father is dead.
In France in the 16th century, Madeleine faces her father going back to war in a final push to try and end the Wars of Religion, leaving her as the figurehead in charge of the chateau and everyone who lives in it. Talk of a foreigner creating dissent in soldiers, and the repeated disappearance of Madeleine's mentor, Lucius, put her on edge and she sets out to figure out who the traitor might be and what's going on.
Jack and Will find the statue in the woods behind the chateau and stumble on a secret tunnel leading from the woods to the castle, where Jack finds Madeleine's diary concealed under a stone in the floor or one of the rooms. By accident, Jack and Will discover that Jack's father left secret messages in his own notebooks which can be read with a cipher, which gives Jack more insight into what he's been experiencing and what might have happened to his father.
Madeleine meets a foreigner, but not the one she's been searching for, although this foreigner gives her the chance to achieve her dream of having her thoughts and musings read by people in the future.
Jack and Will discover the key to finding Jack's father, while Madeleine realises the chateau is going to be attacked and works to save the residents. Jack's plan to save his father is thwarted by an unexpected person, and his hopes of rescue are dashed. Or are they? Madeleine succeeds in saving residents of the chateau, but at what cost to herself?
Jack Stone & The Forgotten Girl is a fantasy adventure story aimed at 9-11 year olds. Told from dual perspectives, the story has a strong female protagonist and gives a glimpse into France in the 16th century.
