A boy takes aim at a rook with his catapult. The impossible shot strikes home, the bird falls, and with its death William Bellman must leave the eternity of childhood summers behind him and learn to be mortal.
A man weighed down by tragedy has a drunken conversation in a graveyard with a man who may or may not exist. An extraordinary bargain is sealed.
A curious new shop opens in the heart of London - the first mourning emporium, providing everything from coffins to umbrellas. Here, William enters a collaboration with death - but who is the mysterious Mr Black?
And the rooks - have they forgotten?