In Barcelona in 1945, Daniel’s father takes him to a hidden library of forgotten books. Daniel chooses a novel by Julián Carax, but his interest in its author soon attracts attention from people with secrets of their own.

Someone is attempting to destroy every copy of Carax’s work. Daniel’s search becomes a mystery involving the author’s life and those he left behind, as Carlos Ruiz Zafón weaves together literary obsession, danger and the city’s troubled past.