One-half of the book is about a sweet and naïve young man named Simon Watson, a young librarian, whose parents are dead and his sister travels with the circus while he lives in their family home which is slowly crumbling into the sea. Then he loses his job and his sister, Enola, and her tattooed boyfriend show up at the house. About this time he has started a relationship with a girl he has known since childhood and he receives a mysterious book in the mail that will change his life. The book is a log from a traveling circus dating back to 1700. He further finds this book contains information about his relatives and he finds out through them that all the women in his family died by drowning on the 24th of July while in their 20's. Simon starts to worry a lot about Enola and the date is only a few weeks away.This is a split narrative book detailing the life of Amos from his birth in the 1780's; his muteness; his being left in the woods at a young age; and finally being taken in by the circus. Amos's relation to Simon and Enola is that he married Evangeline, one of their great-grandmothers, who happen to drown like all the other female relatives in Simon and Enola's family.There are some very original characters and the book is the big mystery but a lot of other surprises pop up too. I really enjoyed the characters and was especially drawn to Simon. This is not a light-hearted read but quite dark but I couldn't put it down once I started it. The novel is beautifully written and it has a great plot and pace and wonderfully drawn characters.