This is a strange and lovely book. Set primarily in Peru in 1861, the story follows Merrick Tremayne, an agent and smuggler of the East India Company. He made his reputation smuggling opium into China but a serious leg injury has left him grounded and depressed in England. When a Navy friend approaches him about a mission in Peru, Merrick can't quite believe the offer is real. With a sense that he has nothing to lose, Merrick agrees to the long voyage and the trek deep into the Andes to the town of New Bethlehem. Merrick's goal is to steal valuable cuttings from cinchona trees-the only source of quinine, a vital medication for malaria- to break the Peruvian monopoly. But he has personal reasons for being interested in New Bethlehem, as his grandfather traveled there and his father was born there. Pulley does a masterful job of weaving the elements of the fantastic carefully into the story, one small revelation at a time, so that the reader is never quite sure if the new piece is science or magic. Each unbelievable thing, once accepted, paves the way for the next unbelievable thing: silvery white trees that explode in fire, vines that create bioluminescent pollen, a town built on towers of obsidian and statues that seem to move of their own volition. The family secrets Merrick Tremayne uncovers here are beyond anything he could have imagined. They shape his past, and they will shape his future if he decides to let them in.