On an unnaturally dark night, an unnaturally black dog took a baby from its cradle.
Behave, child, or the same might happen to you!
In a cruel and arbitrary world, where disturbing lapses in logic are commonplace, five orphans must face their traumatic origins.
Gabriella is a crippled angel, haunted by her inability to interpret prophecies. Cur is the rabid leader of a sect of dogs, desperate to escape his inheritance. Cuckoo is a gambler with a wax face determined to find a fixed identity before his luck runs out. Magpie is a thief in search of the perfect photographic subject, but terrified of going blind. Crow is a leper trying to distil the essence of death as an antidote to dying.
Each of them is deformed; each has a special ability; each is connected to all of the others. And each gets exactly what they deserve. Or do they?