He is a boy dressed in silks and light wigs and given the best of classical educations. Raised by a mystical group of logical philosophers known only by figures, the guy and his mother-a princess in exile from a faraway land-are the just people in their household assigned titles. As the boy’s regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, youthful Octavian begins to question the reason behind his guardians’ fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door will he find out the hideous nature of their experiments-and his personal chilling function in them.