Is the Porcelain Princess simply someone from a fairy story, or does she really exist?
Carey has spent all her young life searching for the Princess, touring the kingdoms with the puppet theatre inherited from her parents. A few puppets have a semblance of life thanks to ingenious mechanisms, but they're rapidly disintegrating and Carey hopes the Princess will reveal the secret of her life.
But why are real people illustrated in stories about the Princess?
And why do they succumb to the disease-like Fading, turning transparent and gradually completely vanishing?
Carey finds the Princess – but she also finds that her own life is far more complicated than she had ever imagined.