Apollo, a New York antiquarian bookseller, is happy, for he has just become a father. The young father does not leave the infant for a moment and notices how Emma's behavior has changed: she has drifted away from her husband and hardly takes any interest in their son. Apollo attributes the oddities to postpartum depression, but one day Emma does something unforgivable and disappears without a trace. The protagonist must scour the grim neighborhoods of New York in search of information not only about the whereabouts of his missing wife but also about his past.