"That night, as the striking of the great clock reverberated though the draughty halls of the castle, Flood, in shirt and breeches, leaped barefoot, like a pirate boarding a gall, from his moving bed to Irena's. He found her sitting at the head with her arms around her knees, eyes glittering..."

In a spectacular gothic castle of mechanical revolving doors, moving floors and unstable staircases broods the Count Ostrov, obsessive collector of puzzles and stories. He charges Nicholas Flood, the English printer, with the task of creating an infinite book; a story with no beginning and no end. But when Nicholas meets the count's beautiful daughter Irena, a forbidden romance begins - and soon ends, as Nicolas is swiftly imprisoned in the castle's dungeon. Once free, he embarks on a perilous journey though Venice, Alexandria, China and Lonon, on a quest for knowledge, and into the path of greater danger...