Researching her ancestry after the death of her mother, Clara Fitzgerald discovers a connection to the writer Mary Shelley and, as her relationship with her fiancé changes, she feels the impact of the nineteenth-century author on her own life.

When two masterminds--Mary, the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, and Ada, the daughter of Lord Byron--are brought together by fate, they make a shocking--and magical--discovery that draws the attention of a mad scientist.

Told primarily by servant Felix, a former slave, Lord Byron and friends gather to tell ghost stories on a stormy night in 1816 Switzerland, but a scarred girl arrives with her own dark and dangerous tale.

"A sapphic reimagining of Mary Shelley's youth, vividly exploring innocence, young love, gothic mystery and the roots of her literary masterpiece, Frankenstein. Switzerland, 1816. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia envelopes the whole of Europe in ash and cloud. Amid this "year without a summer," eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley arrive at Lake Geneva to visit Lord Byron and his companion John Polidori. Anguished by the...