It begins with a girl in London, 1860. Her family is exceptionally wealthy and she is exceptionally lonely.

The closest thing to friendship Clara has experienced was a brief encounter with the two ragged children who work with the puppeteer in the park.

For her birthday she asks to see them perform in the drawing room, and her father, to her surprise, allows it.

The puppeteer, Grisini, kidnaps Clara and uses his sinister powers to imprison her body and mind in the form of a marionette to add to his theatre.

His two young assistants realise what has happened, and all three children find themselves caught up in a terrible struggle for supernatural eminence between Grisini and a dying witch of extraordinary power.Published in the USA as Splendors and Glooms.