A little boy, no more than eight or nine years old, once stepped on a nail sticking out from the train tracks near Bishopstone. He didn't seem to hear the train, but then it's not like anyone would miss Reggie Rainbow, who got his name from the orphanage. Now, at the age of 23, Reggie has strong hands and nimble fingers from using crutches after getting polio as a child. It is this dexterity, perfect for illusions, which led Mr Brookes to hire him in the first place. Reggie has been a disappearance boy for years, making a long string of alluring assistants disappear while Mr Brookes performs to the audience.
The only problem is that in 1953 the public no longer seem interested in illusionists and bookings are slim, even in London. So when Mr Brookes gets a new slot at the Brighton Grand, Reggie finds himself in a strange town with dark and unexplored corners. But it is the arrival of Pamela Rose, a beautiful new assistant, which truly turns his life upside down. As he peels away the layers of her own performance and the Grand's spectacular Coronation show edges ever closer, Reggie begins to wonder how much of his life has always been an act and sets out to find somebody who disappeared from his life long ago.
