Paris 1750. A new maid arrives at the home of a celebrated clockmaker and his clever unworldly daughter. But rumours are stirring that Reinhart's uncanny mechanical creations - bejewelled birds silver spiders - are more than mere automata. That they might defy the laws of nature perhaps even at the expense of the living. . . But Madeleine is hiding a dark past and a dangerous purpose - to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move in exchange for her own chance of freedom. Meanwhile in the streets children are quietly disappearing - and Madeleine comes to fear that she has stumbled upon a greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the heart of Versailles. . .