In 1994, Mario Pallochi, an Argentinian author living in Spain, receives a strange book in the post: The Anatomy of Plants (1874). Since he has no interest in botany, Mario cannot work out why it was sent to him. Or who sent it. But there is more to the book than initially meets the eye. Its pages hide a message relating to the recent, inexplicable disappearance of the acerbic and highly regarded literary critic and author, Germán Altabella. Altabella's last words detail the staggering events of that summer, when a peculiar exchange with the enigmatic, elusive Hilario Campillo lured him to an isolated country house with the promise of an incredible literary encounter... Layers of intrigue shroud this peculiar account and draw the reader into a strange vortex of shadows and time. Who is Hilario Campillo and what really happened to Germán Altabella? And on this hot Spanish summer night, fictional characters and characters stranger than fiction reach out to snatch us into a place both familiar and unknown.