Siena Amati serves the Dark Goddess, named for the pit into which the world has discarded love and the vast pleasures inherent to the mingling of one human being's energy with the spirit of another. Siena learns that, as the goddess's Dark Priestess, hers shall be the forbidden Way of Pleasure.
Part I introduces the novel's characters including Siena Amati, all of whom live in different parts of the word in different eras, from the ancient to the medieval, to the 19th century to the present; and from Asia and Europe to the United States. The Dark Priestess connects to these people by way of mysterious travel. Part II entwines their lives in Siena's personal drama of romance, conflict, trauma and, ultimately, triumph.
This large work maps its brave course through the human unconscious where scenes and events spring not from the intellect but the imagination, of which--according to William Blake--the world of mortality is but a shadow.