When Professor Stephen Mollgaard's world splits in two, will his new student lead him to Truth or madness? An eagle in a box. A cryptic report of a student's death. And Silkie. For Professor Stephen Mollgaard these are the trappings of World Two. It pushes against World One: the mundane world of student papers, professional expectations, and Catholic school catechism. A perennial misfit, Stephen has spent his life wondering which world is his. Afflicted by a vision of a godless, random universe, he teeters on the edge of World Two. When Silkie shows up demanding to be let into his class, Stephen finds himself both captivated and off-balance. A homeless, twenty-three-year-old schizoaffective, Silkie is unpredictable, and her writing is full of fantastical tales that Stephen can't forget. She invites him into her six-year-old daughter's life and injects herself into his. Even as he begins to comprehend Silkie, however, she disappears - Stephen is determined to find her.