On a sunlit headland above the ancient castle at Tintagel, the King and Queen of Cats are raising their beautiful kittens. But which of their three offspring is the famed Golden Cat? And how to tell, when two of the kittens disappear suddenly, as if into thin air? Did the old cat Majicou's heroic attempt to destroy the Alchemist fail? If so, Tag, the new caretaker of the wild roads, must find the kittens before something terrible happens to them, and consequently to all natural things. Meanwhile, in a research laboratory the cat known only as Animal X - his identity and memory lost in a mist of pain and horror - dreams his days away. Until his dreams are invaded by extraordinary visions- strange, golden glimpses of a lost age of catkind. On another continent, the feral calico called Sealink acts upon a different call- lonely and embittered, she is drawn to seek happiness in her native New Orleans. There in a city of cats and magic, she will discover far more than she expected; including a sinister link with the legend of the Golden Cat. And at the abandoned heart of the wild roads at Cutting Lane, a distant cry disturbs the dusty silence. . .