An intricately woven mystery surrounding the theft of a puzzling manuscript and two valuable books from a Buenos Aires library starts in pre-war Malta and follows a 50-year long path that forks out to London, Ceuta, Buenos Aires, Gothenburg and San Francisco. The story’s penumbra is inhabited by Jorge Luis Borges; Jeremy Bentham; Juan Bautista Azopardo, a fearless privateer from Senglea, credited with founding the Argentine Navy; Zachary Thorne, a naval lieutenant turned librarian, intent on making Malta his home; his reserved but charming daughter Miranda; and other intriguing characters whose furtive shadows paradoxically cast a light on the tale’s unfolding.