Life is like an ocean. Things wash out of a man’s life only for the tide to bring them from the depths in a different form.

The Mechanical Folk, cyborg allies from Jonas’s past, call on him for help. The last time he answered it cost him everything he held dear; but he will not refuse help to those who need it. A troubled young man among their community has vanished. Assuming the youth may have dropped out of school to experience life away from his clannish family and community, Jonas’s investigation soon draws him into a web of secrets and endless deception.

In his personal life, things and people from the past resurface; one that seems a bane that turns out to be a boon, and the other, a boon that turns out to be a bane. However, there is one thing from the past that may hold an answer to the case and Jonas realizes that he already has it in his possession - the secret, enigmatic journal of the young druggist and alchemist, Ralston Manning.