When apprentice sorcerer Mystigris goes missing, his lover Rachel Diamant, best friend Ogier Pique, and a family of detectives called the Trefles discover Bouffon Marotte hiding in the countryside near her father's estate. The grotesque is wearing the same motley that Mystigris had on the night he disappeared from the Equinox Ball. With the help of her friends, Rachel pursues clues that uncover the dangerous secrets of her lover's past, including his studies in the fabled, but forbidden magic known as Veil Sorcery. As reality shreds faster and faster, time is running out for the band to recover Mystigris and restore the Veils, but.... Mystigris' enemies are all around them. The most powerful of them, the arch sorcerer Promage Arnold Chevre, will stop at nothing to secure the power of the Veils for himself. He wants nothing less than to unravel the Universe and weave a one of his own twisted design. The fate of the Universe balances on the tip of Chevre's diabolical ambition. Only the bumbling Marotte can stop him.