In the nineteenth-centuary Oxford, an extraordinary child is born - Edgar Jones, a porter's son with a magical talent. Though his father cannot see his academic slownerr, his abilities as a metalworker and designer are quickly noticed, and become a source of tension within the family. When Edgar comes to the attention of maverick profesor at work on a museum of the natural sciences, Edgar is at once plucked from obscurity and plunged into the heat of a debate which threatens to tear the university apart... -- back cover.