The debut book of a young American writer and screenwriter, a sophisticated stylization of a Gothic novel with erotic overtones brought to the fore, earned critics flattering comparisons with the novels of such masters of the genre as Anne Rice and Antonia Byatt. The action takes place in France at the beginning of the 19th century. The young monastic pupil Herculina, accused of having relations with the devil, receives help from an unexpected quarter; Among her new acquaintances are an incubus and a succubus, and the mysterious Asmodeus, and the court artist of the beheaded French empress, who entrusts Herculina with a dangerous task and trusts her with the secret of her “Book of Shadows”...