The Sweet Science of Bruising

Lillian Shaw is an inventor, specializing in soothers for the prevention of nervous hysteria. When--disguised as a boy--she attends a bare-knuckle boxing match, hoping to improve the verisimilitude of her devices, she is swept away on a whole new adventure. She and the boxer, Turlough, escape the machinations of his greedy brother, only to be captured by airship pirates, take passage with a traveling wonder show and, somehow, fall in love in the middle of it all.