Magnus Eisengrim is a master illusionist, the most celebrated magician of his age. Together with his old friends Dunstan Ramsay and Liesl Naegeli, he is ensconced at Liesl's castle in Switzerland, where he is enacting the title role in a film about the legendary French illusionist Robert-Houdin. Off-camera and after shooting sessions, the film's great Scandinavian director, Jurgen Lind, becomes intrigued with Magnus and -- together with the producer, the cameraman, the incomparable Liesl, and Ramsay himself -- draws from him an account of his life story, a story as rich in color, drama, comedy, and gripping tension as any in recent fiction. Magnus's audience is lively and opinionated, and he is not allowed to tell his tale without interruption from his listeners.