Ella's boyfriend Jamie seems to be her perfect match until a death in the family calls him back to England and it becomes clear that he's hiding something. Can their relationship survive the revelation of something so astounding that it completely changes Ella's perception of him and his place in her world? While Jamie struggles with family responsibilities, Ella's steampunk murder mystery develops a life of its own, raising disturbing memories of her time as a striptease artist and a past life as a sexually abused Italian nun. She also dreams of an ephemeral city, where she seeks to unravel the locksmith's secret and find the key that opens a door to other realities. All these, together with a lost brother, a desperate mother, a demanding cat, and a struggle to live up to Buddhist ideals, weave together in a rich tapestry that creates an extraordinary work of genre-bending fiction.