The Black Book of Secrets was declared a new masterpiece of English Gothic literature, it was the most high-profile debut in recent years since Diana Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale. F. E. Higgins' new mystery novels, “The Spellcaster” and “The Glass Eye Collector,” were also a great success. Hector Fitzbodley inherited his love of butterflies from his father, a fashionable wine merchant and passionate lepidopterist. But then the father, broken and ruined by the blackmail of the one-eyed adventurer Gulliver Trupin, dies, and Hector goes to wander on the southern shore of Urbs-Umida and cherish plans for revenge. And here his knowledge of butterflies comes in handy: Baron Bovric de Vandolen (as Trupin now calls himself) goes to Lady Mandible at the Visitipitts Hall estate, where she is preparing her famous annual ball, and takes Hector with her, because it is the butterflies that must make this ball not just famous, but legendary. However, Hector is not the only one with a secret agenda; So Lord Mandible dreams of hunting a shaggy boar, and “Baron Bovrik” dreams of collecting seven glass eyes with precious stones, an eye for each day of the week...