A child is born... His  mother's only gift is a mask. Precocious and  gifted, he will live friendless and alone. taunted and  abused, he will flee, only to find himself caged  again-as a freak in a Gypsy carnival. A brilliant  outcast... the world is his home. Filled with  bitter rage, he will kill to escape, becoming a  stonemason's apprentice in Rome... a dark magician at  the treacherous Persian court... and finally, the  genius behind the construction of the Paris Opera  House and the labyrinthine world below. Lacking  one thing only: A woman's love. Cloaked in secrets,  his power complete, he will see the exquisite  Christine and for the first time know what it means to  love. Obsessed, he will bring her into his eerie  subterranean world, driven to posses her heart and  soul. Phantom--A haunting  story of power and darkness, of magic and murder, of  sensuality and betrayal, and ultimately, the  unforgettable story of a man and a woman and the eternal  quality of love.