A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.

"Stax Stonecutter has lived a peaceful--if unremarkable--life in his small town in the Overworld. He prefers leisure to work, choosing to tend to his gardens and play with his cats all day rather than expand his family's mining business. But when a mysterious stranger arrives, he takes everything from Stax, stranding him in the middle of nowhere and with nothing to his name. Now, Stax must learn not only how to survive, but how to live"--

In eighteenth-century England, young Christopher "Kit" Bristol unwittingly takes on the task of his dead master, notorious highwayman Whistling Jack, who pledged a fairy he would rescue feisty Princess Morgana from an arranged marriage with King George III.

The six horrible Herdmans, the worst kids in the history of the world, cause mayhem throughout the school year.