Daniel Amat has left Spain and all that happened there behind him for academic life in Oxford. The arrival of a letter - a demand - stamped Barcelona comes like a cold hand from behind. He arrives back in that near-mythic city a few days before the great 1888 World Fair, amid whispers of murders - the injuries reminiscent of an ancient curse, and bearing signs of the genius 16th century anatomist, Vesalius. Daniel is soon pulled into a terrible venture to bring the secret of Vesalius to life.