Boston, 1775. Raised by a society of rational philosophers, who call each other by a number, Octavian and his mother - a princess in exile from a faraway land - are the only people in their household assigned names.

The boy is dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest classical education but as his regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies.

Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them.