The language and action are as lush and intricate as William Morris Victorian wallpaper. Memory, the sister of silent Etherea, tells the story of their childhood with an eccentric father who trades Etherea for a piece of jade to Radulph Tubbs, a despicable character who is Queen Victoria's Dragon of Industry (Dickens would have disliked him intensely). Etherea magically disappears from Tubbs' grasp after he brutally attacks her, and in Egypt, a hunger artist who speaks in tongues plans a revenge that will surprise everyone.