After passing the strange and rigorous entrance exams, she is taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Bronte, Eliot, and Lowell, who have adopted pseudonyms to conceal their true identities.

Wil Parke, an apparently innocent man, is ambushed by two men in an airport bathroom, who claim that he is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets.

Wil eventually discovers that his entire past is a lie and must travel to the decimated town of Broken Hill, Australia to uncover the truth about who he is.

At the point in which Emily's and Wil's narratives conjoin, the shocking plot of the poets is revealed in full, the number of deaths increases, and the world nears a crisis event in which all language will become meaningless.

At their best, authors like Tim Powers and Umberto Eco construct astonishingly elaborate alternate histories in which fantastical events nestle between the known and documented ones...Barry's particular addition to the genre is a corrosive wit.