When a job is supposed to be permanent, you don't usually contemplate unemployment. But when Oswin's position of interpreter for a deaf man is taken by an angel from Heaven, he finds himself adrift.On his way back to his master's house, he encounters a mysterious elf, Calder, living in dilapidated ruins. Intrigued and attracted, he lingers until morning and meets Calder's pet—a black swan in an enchanted pond.Calder is a man of magic and secrets, and Oswin cannot bring himself to leave until the mysteries come to light—but answers may be the very thing that drive him away.