Dr. Willoughby Thorne always wanted to work for the Smithsonian. Instead, he ended up the curator of the Museum of the Arcane, master (more or less) of three public floors and 772 vaults full of everything from the staff of Moses to the sword of Caesar to live bugbears and haunted bagpipes. Endowed with the accumulated might of the artifacts themselves, it is his job to keep them in line—and in their cases. Quietly. Without attracting the attention of the public, the press, or Congress, which (reluctantly) pays the MA's budget every year because the thought of letting the objects loose into the world gives even the Pentagon nightmares. The objects, however, have their own notions about their place in history. Some of them take exception to being bound in the stuffy, boring confines of the museum. Some can wreak disaster even by being good. And some have a perverse sense of humor they exercise upon poor Will at odd moments. Rising to the occasion is an absolute job requirement.

Aided by a museum staff that could kindly be called eccentric, Will fights to keep the objects from corrupting an unsuspecting public...even when the museum has other ideas! Thirteen stories of after-hours derring-do and magical geekery showcase the MA and its harried curator.