Thomas Quinn is a failed writer whose first novel was not very popular, and whose second novel turned out to be of no use to anyone. Bills are piling up, frustration is mounting, and Quinn's life seems gray and dull when suddenly he receives a voicemail from his father, Stanley Quinn, who died seven years ago. Their relationship was not easy, since Stanley preferred to communicate not with his own son, but with his student and protégé Andrew Black. He released a huge sensation novel, the international bestseller "Cupid's Engine", and then disappeared without a trace. Soon Thomas receives a letter from Black with a photograph of a strange black sphere, after which very strange things begin to happen to Thomas, and willy-nilly he has to start investigating and find out what happened to Black and his father. Only the search for answers quickly leads to more fundamental questions about entropy, the true form of angels and the nature of time itself. Fiction begins to intertwine with life, and reality shows its true colors to Thomas.