The lives of four outsiders become entwined, bringing irrevocable change to them all. New York, 1895. Sylvan Threadgill, a night soiler; Odile Church and her beautiful sister Belle were raised amid the applause and magical pageantry of the Church of Marvels; a young woman named Alphie awakens to find herself trapped across the river in Blackwell's Lunatic Asylum. As these strangers' lives become increasingly connected, their stories and secrets unfold.