Pursued by a power more terrifying than any magic they can summon, Garrick Hawken and his family flee to sombre Allamanda to find a way to recapture their beseiged home, Arcady. Their vast estates and magnificent house are being consumed by the Absences, voids where reality unravels, changes, consumes both the foolhardy and the brave. Pitched into a bitter quest into the Absences themselves, Garrick's success or failure will decide the fate of Arcady and the Hawkens once and for all.