The few staff there harbor malice to anyone from the outside world, and as Odd explores the estate, the land and buildings seem to flip between static beauty and a hell on earth... which he finds is influenced by machinery designed by a genius from the past.

He meets the spirit of a woman riding a horse in a long white dress stained red from wounds that she received at her death.

As he tries to understand her needs and help her, the sky behind her turns an unnatural color, becomes stained with the dark jet-streams of the debris of war, and he sees impossible, physical monsters wheeling to attack him.

After leaving Magic Beach with Odd, Noah Wolflaw becomes intrigued by her and invites the two of them to stay at the guest house of the Roseland estate.

Chef Shilshom is the resident cook at Roseland who Odd describes as having the "feet of a ballerina grafted onto the massive legs of a sumo wrestler."