A Los Angeles magician named Parsifal dies of a brain aneurism, leaving behind Sabine, his 41 year old widow and assistant for more than two decades.

Parsifal was gay, marrying the worshipful Sabine out of affectionate appreciation only after the death of his lover, Phan, two years earlier.

When Parsifal's will reveals not only the existence of a parent he'd always claimed was deceased but two sisters and a hidden past in Nebraska, Sabine sets out amidst depression and grief to discover the part of his life that her husband kept hidden.

The New York Times praised the novel as "beguiling" but argued the protagonist "never generates enough sympathy to make her predicament truly absorbing.

"[1] Writing in The Independent, Penelope Lively described The Magician's Assistant as "a lovely book by a writer to watch".