When Song Sun accidentally reveals the secret of Chinese silk making to a stranger, she tries desperately to get it back.

Julia Song and her friend Patrick would love to win a blue ribbon, maybe even two, at the state fair. They've always done projects together, and they work well as a team. This time, though, they're having trouble coming up with just the right project. Then Julia's mother offers a suggestion: They can raise silkworms, as she did when she was a girl in Korea. Patrick thinks it's a great idea. Of course there are obstacles-for example, where will they...

Some four thousand years ago, the cultivation of silkworms began, the practice spreading to the far reaches of civilization. With it came a growing obsession with unlocking silk's secrets to understand how the strongest biological material ever known could be harnessed. Explorers and scientists, including groundbreaking women who pushed the boundaries of societal expectations, dedicated--even sacrificed--their lives to investigate the anatomy of silk-producing...