Modern-day kids Joe (the point-of-view character), Fred, and Sam have been transported into the past to King Arthur’s time. As they try to figure out what happened, a night in black yells at them. The boys argue they don’t know how to get back to their time, and the knight charges. At this, Joe laments that “we were about to be killed more than a thousand years before we were even born” (6).

Chapter 2 recaps how the boys get sent back in time. They are at Joe’s house celebrating his birthday when Sam finds a present Joe hasn’t opened. The present is from Joe’s uncle—Joe, a traveling magician—and comes with a card that reads “[B]e careful what you wish for. You might get it” (9). The present is a book entitled “The Book,” and the first page shows a picture of the black knight from Chapter 1. When Fred says it would be cool to see knights and stuff for real, green mist suddenly surrounds them. When it clears, they are facing the knight from