In 1889, the Wheeler family of New York travel to England and Europe as part of the children's education. They spend time in the English Lake Country, London, Paris, on the Rhine. They visit churches and cathedrals, castles and museums, lakes and chasms. In Paris, they spend several days at the Great Exposition-the World's Fair of 1889-where they ride in an "enormous balloon" hundreds of feet over the city. The account, found in a diary written by 14-year-old Winifred, provides a fascinating picture of life among the moderately wealthy of the Gilded Age.